Britain's Queen (Elizabeth) shakes hands with ex-IRA chief

"BELFAST (Reuters) - Britain's Queen Elizabeth shook the hand of former IRA guerrilla commander Martin McGuinness for the first time on Wednesday, drawing a line under a conflict that cost the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians, including that of her cousin.

The meeting with McGuinness, who is now the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, comes 14 years after the Irish Republican Army ended its war against British rule in the province, and is one of the last big milestones in a peace process whose success has been studied around the world.

The queen met McGuinness, Northern Ireland's Unionist first minister Peter Robinson and Irish President Michael D.Higgins for just under 10 minutes behind closed doors in a theatre in a leafy suburb of Belfast cordoned off by hundreds of police...<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/britains-queen-meets-ex-ira-chief-mcguinness-100737189.html

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I know many here have a negative opinion of Queen Elizabeth, and I respect that. I just find this meeting such a milestone, and it was something Ireland's President and Sinn Fein member Gerry Adams Personally asked the Queen to do, saying "...the handshake was "something that had to be done" to remove an obstacle to reconciliation."

Also, "A few hours later, the queen waved to crowds from an open-topped car at a celebration of her Diamond Jubilee attended by over 20,000 people - a stark contrast to the armored limousines that have been a mandatory precaution on previous visits."

The latter is interesting to me, because she had been an IRA target in the past, and her cousin (and Prince Philip's uncle) Lord Mountbatten was killed by the IRA.

Queen Elizabeth is also a WWII veteran.