Queen Meets President

As expected, the Queen has held a private meeting with Irish President Mary McAleese.

The venue was Queen's University in Belfast, where the Queen also talked with Nobel Laureate poet Seamus Heaney.

Earlier, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, she visited the East Belfast Mission on the Newtownards Road.

On the street outside, hundreds of people, many waving union flags, cheered on the royal visitors.

It is the 20th time the Queen has been in Northern Ireland and comes despite tabloid newspaper reports of a 'dissident' republican plot to kill the sovereign during the three-day visit.

The Queen's meeting with the Irish head of state is only the second such encounter on the island of Ireland to take place.

The two have met seven times in the past, but it is thought these discussions could be a forerunner for a royal visit to the Republic.

This is a highly symbolic meeting which will be widely seen as one of the last parts of a jigsaw puzzle for which the final set piece is a Royal visit to the Republic - presaged by Princess Anne's welcome at Dublin's Crooke Park earlier in the year.

The meeting with President McAleese is to be just one of the royal couple's engagements in Belfast and at Hillsborough Castle over the next few days.

The Queen's first engagement was at Hillsborough Castle last night when she met more than 300 members and workers from the Territorial Army - which has just sent a large contingent to Afghanistan - and was organised to mark the organisation's centenary.

William Hall, the Lord-Lieutenant of County Down, greeted the Queen and the Duke on their arrival at Hillsborough Castle and went on to introduce the Northern Ireland Secretary.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said the visit was "an enormously significant and historic occasion for everyone".

"In this new era of political stability and optimism the people of Northern Ireland, who continue to embrace our shared vision of normality, will see a Royal Maundy Service take place here for the first time ever in the historic City of Armagh," he said.

The Queen will hand out Maundy Thursday alms purses to people in Armagh, part of an ancient ceremony held each Easter.

She will present 82 men and 82 women with the traditional Maundy purses, which is to represent her 82nd year.

The presentations are given in recognition of people's services to both church and community.

The Queen has attended 52 Maundy Services at more than 40 cathedrals during her reign.

It is held on the Thursday of Holy Week to mark Christ's Last Supper and used to include a symbolic washing of feet. This was discontinued in the early 1700s.

The last time the Queen was in Northern Ireland was in June 2007 at a party for the community and voluntary sector in Coleraine, County Londonderry.

She was also in Northern Ireland in October 2006 for the final review of the home battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment before they were disbanded last summer.

(BMcC)