Britain's queen shakes hands with ex-IRA chief

Better peace than war.

I never thought I would live to see the day.... could never have even imagined it. Really shows that anything is possible. The ideological/politcal war is largely over, but unfortunately that has been replaced with pure criminality and lawlessness.... sorry to say but I felt safer in Northern Ireland during the Troubles than I do these days, with lawless youths and similar problems that affect the rest of the UK.

Epic event, so happy to be around to see this happen! I was in Belfast during the worst time and it is time for this nonsense to stop! Jolly Good Dear QE. PEACE is coming

The funniest part was Prince Phillip darting away from McGuinness. I just wish the senile old bigot had come out with one of his outrageous statements.

Wow, the Queen shaking hands (did anyone actually see the handshake?) with a Terrorist!! What is the world coming to?

Let the handshakes continue and flourish! Queen Elizabeth did sterling work in Dublin last year, and once again in Belfast this week.

@y3chome, give me peace any day of the week - no longer hostage to partisan police, a bigoted, state-paid and equipped militia, and self-serving securocrats, never mind the opposing paramilitaries bombing, killing and maiming.

Moving on, though, and let's do so quickly, there are too many idle young hands, as you have pointed out. Time to align corporate taxes with the Republic, tackle the frightening qualification (and ambition) deficit in loyalist ghettoes, and attract inward investment to afford everyone human dignity.

I hope they can sit down pound back a fee Guinesses and have some fish and chips! Give peace a chance!!!

There can only be peace when there is no oppression. As far as I know, Elizabeth has nothing directly to do with what happens in or with Northern Ireland, so on that score, shaking hands with her is not a problem.

And if anyone hates McGuiness, they better hate the English of yesteryear much, much more. Everything they did in Ireland led to McGuiness. Spit on McGuiness? Fine. But only if you hock a big giant luggee on English history too.

I am glad to see a free Ireland, and its a shame about Northern Ireland. But the people who live there today want to be part of the UK, and that is that.

Well its good to try and make peace but difficult to shake hands with him and smile but wishing to stick the head in him instead.........

Lets hope there are no future problems

It's quite understandable for the Duke of Edinburgh to turn away from McGuinness: don't forget the IRA blew up the Queen's cousin.

Yes a big step forward, but it still made my flesh crawl.

Anything is better than a movie about a stuttering king. I can see it now, "The Queen's Shake".

Another welcome sign. I have no love of either McGuinness or Lizzie but it shows that players on all sides value peace and will do what it takes to maintain it.

The current situation in N Ireland is a workable, pragmatic solution. Those that want to be Irish can get an Irish passport and continue their lives, those that want to be part of the UK can get a UK passport.

As others have said - time to start spurring growth and jobs creation, mirroring corporate tax rates with Eire would be unfair on the rest of the UK but is warranted by the educational and employment deficits that exist in N Ireland relative to the rest of the UK. A booming island of ireland will cement the peace.

Opinionhated - I agree with cause and effect, english history created a monster in the IRA. Likewise we can see the same process with american foreign policy creating OBL...