[Al Jazeera] Queen Elizabeth II, the British monarch, has begun the first visit to Ireland by a UK royal in a century, despite a bomb being found on a bus near Dublin, the Irish capital.The four-day trip is intended to highlight good Anglo-Irish relations following years of animosity and peace in Northern Ireland.
Earlier on Tuesday defence forces said they had carried out a controlled kaboom on a "viable" bomb found on a bus heading for Dublin.
"It was on a bus and by the time our team was called in the bus was evacuated and parked at a bus stop," an army front man said.
"The device was made safe in situ," he added.
Andrew Simmons, Al Jizz's news hound in Dublin, said: "The [first] device was on the outskirts in the commuter belt. It was inside a luggage compartment of a bus, and that bus was headed for the capital."
"[There are] are no claims of responsibility but you can certainly say that it's highly likely that dissident Republican groups are involved in the attempts at disruption of this historic visit."
A controlled kaboom was also carried out on a second device, which turned out to be a hoax, the defence forces said.
A third device found in the Summerhill area of Dublin also turned out to be a hoax.
'Major act of symbolism'
Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, said the queen's visit would not be affected by the incidents, and the British foreign office and Buckingham Palace, the monarch's official residence, had said the state visit would go ahead.
"The Germans didn't scare her and now she's supposed to be scared of a few vicious Micks?"
"This is an historic and symbolic visit and it is dealing with the conclusion of the past and a message for the future," Kenny told RTE state radio.
"These things happen when global personalities visit any countries ... and whether it be Ireland or other countries, adequate security arrangements are put in place."
The queen is the first British monarch to visit Ireland since its independence from the UK in 1921. It severed its last ties to the British monachy in 1948, but the north of the island remains part of the United Kingdom.
Queen Elizabeth II's itinerary includes a visit to Croke Park, a Gaelic sports stadium where British troops killed 14 people in 1920 during Ireland's uprising against British rule.
She will also visit the Garden of Remembrance, a central Dublin memorial that honours two centuries of Ireland's rebel dead.
"That is a major act of symbolism, a potent moment," our correspondent said.
"It's controversial, there will be Unionist politicians there and some involved in the Ulster Defence Association, which has disarmed and was part of the conflict in Northern Ireland," he added.
Her arrival also coincides with the 37th anniversary of bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, the single bloodiest day in a three-decade sectarian battle over Northern Ireland.
Thousands of police shut down key roads in the Irish capital and erected pedestrian barricades for several kilometers, while 1,000 Irish troops are on standby during the historical visit.
Tuesday's events come a day after British police said they had received a bomb threat for central London from
Irish dissident republicans.