The joining of hands yesterday between the Queen and the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, is emblematic of the distance travelled by both communities in the long-divided province over the past four decades.
The message of peace the handshake symbolises is especially powerful as, on both sides, it has personal resonance. In 1979, Lord Mountbatten, a distant cousin of the Queen and uncle of her husband, was killed by the IRA, the organisation in which Mr McGuinness was a figure of authority.
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