Who knows what her Prime Minister of the day, and she, discussed during their weekly chat at Buckie house, back in the day?

There's nothing wrong with McGuinness that a speedboat packed with C4 wouldn't solve. Odious little terrorist sympathiser.

Agreed.

I would say, however, that moments like this are often catalysts for people to reconcile their differences. Regardless of how much I loathe Adams & McGuinness.

Completely agree.

Put Gerry Adams in there too and it'll be great.

And the Queen is the head of a nation that has a whiter-than-white record, yes?

Or are atrocities acceptable – if committed by and in the name of a state?

A Scottish protestant by any chance DMW? I am the son of a Scottish protestant merchant seaman who managed to get himself koshed and slung in an Italian prison for shouting 'fook the pope' in Rome's Venezia square....I suppose him drowning at sea when I was 5 saved me from some fervent religious indoctrination during my formative years!

That is awful what happened to your Father in Rome and also the manner of his passing as well.

I don't think he'd have been very impressed about my opinions on the Anglo-Irish troubles.

Well, I'm the daughter of a fundamentalist, Conservative, conservative non-comformist preacher. It's all bleedin' bonkers, but the hatred of other sections of the same faith for some matter of theological interpretation is insane.

I detest the Vatican etc – as should be perfectly clear to anyone who has been here for any length of time – but right-wing, fundamentalist, born-again Protestants are little better.

And in terms of the island of Ireland, it's actually rather a good thing to try to remove yourself from thinking of it in terms of religion and religious tribalism – or at least from the perspective of being in one of those tribes.

What has happened in the last 20 years is one thing I think John Major deserves praise for. Where we are now is infinitely better than where we were before Good Friday etc. It was a brave thing to go down that path.

And the likes of McGuinness and Adams showed bravery too – they'd have been dead themselves if it had failed.

Over the centuries, both sides committed atrocities. Although I'd suggest that, if you want to have some sort of competition on that score, then the British state would win hands down. Perhaps we shouldn't forget that.

And while I'm no ardent monarchist, today's events are part of a process that has seen genuine progress.