PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins is to become the first Irish head of state to make an official state visit to the UK.
The Queen formally invited the President and his wife Sabina to stay with the royals at Windsor Castle next April 8.
Aras an Uachtarain - the President's official residence in Dublin - confirmed they have accepted the invitation.
The groundbreaking three-day State visit follows the Queen's hugely successful trip to Ireland in May 2011.
In remarkable scenes, the Queen paid her respects to republican dead at Dublin's Garden of Remembrance, visited Croke Park - site of the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre - and made a widely-praised speech on Anglo-Irish history.
Although the Irish head of state has travelled to events in the UK over the past year, these were not official visits.
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