In raptures over Queen’s visit

“A moment of healing,” headlines the Irish Independent, on the second day of the visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth to Ireland. On the first visit of a British monarch to its former colony since it won independence in 1921, the Queen began by laying a wreath at Dublin's Garden of Remembrance, “which honours all those who died for Irish freedom in the early part of the 20th century,” the Dublin daily notes. Elizabeth today will visit Croke Park, the sports stadium where in 1920 British soldiers shot dead 12 spectators and one player - an atrocity that is known as "Bloody Sunday". The Irish Independent leader is rhapsodic about the visit- “This is the day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad. The words of the Psalm seem somehow apt at the near-miraculous sight of a British monarch laying a wreath in honour of those who died for Irish freedom. Perhaps the Lord did have a hand in bringing this day about.”