The Belfast handshake: after years of fiery rhetoric came rapprochement

The Queen and Martin McGuinness's handshake didn't last long, but it underlined how far we have come since the Troubles

guardian.co.uk, Caroline Davies, Wednesday 27 June 2012

Queen Elizabeth approaches Northern Ireland first minister Peter Robinson
(centre) and his deputy, Martin McGuinness. Photograph: Pool/Reuters

When it came, it was substantial: no light brushing of fingers, rather a firm, sustained grip fully worthy of the import it carried. At least, that was thehandshake we saw in public between the Queen and the former IRA commander, SinnFéin's Martin McGuinness, now Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, in Belfast on Wednesday.

After the anticipation, agonising and protracted negotiations over when and where, we eventually got two for the price of one – one public handshake, one private.

The first historic encounter between the Queen, pre-eminent symbol of British rule in Ulster, and McGuinness, die-hard republican dedicated to unseating her as head of state, was in the private McGrath suite at Belfast's Lyric theatre. Sparsely furnished, and normally used for creative learning workshops, there were four chairs, a sofa and a circular table, with bottled water to ease any nervous, dry throats.

Despite there being no cameras and no photographic record, this was the theatre's most significant production, and playing to its tiniest ever audience. Just seven people were in the room: the two main principals, plus the Duke of Edinburgh, Irish president Michael Higgins, his wife Sabina, Northern Ireland's first minister Peter Robinson, and the Queen's private secretary Sir Christopher Geidt.

Cameras were later allowed to record the handshake at the end of the event – an art exhibition organised by cross-border charity Co-operation Ireland, which works to bring divided communities together. There, McGuinness stood second in the lineup as the Queen, in "apple green", as described by Buckingham Palace, worked her way down. He did not, as others, bow his head as they shook hands. The handshake, however, lasted three times longer than the others. Then that was it. Long unthinkable, the moment that marked a milestone in the tortured history of British-Irish relations, that drew a further line under the peace process to a conflict that claimed more than 3,600 lives in 30 years of the Troubles, was over.

"Martin, are you still true to your convictions?" yelled a journalist as a smiling McGuinness emerged shortly after the Queen's departure. "I'm still a republican," was the response. "How did it go?" "It was good, it was nice." And with those anodyne words, in such contrast to the fiery rhetoric of the past, rapprochement seemed to have been reached between the erstwhile commander of the Irish Republican Army, and the Queen, head of the British armed services.

Originally the whole event was to be private. Eventually a media pool – one photographer, one TV camera and one reporter – were invited to record the dignitaries viewing the exhibition and meeting the 50 artists and guests. But no conversations were allowed to be recorded.

There may have been no microphones, but cameras did capture the body language. Prince Philip – whose uncle Lord Mountbatten, the Queen's second cousin, was assassinated by the IRA who blew up his fishing boat in County Sligo in 1979 – appeared to move swiftly away as McGuinness leaned towards him while the group viewed the art exhibition, though he did shake his hand later. Little else betrayed the complex emotions surely harboured by both sides.

McGuinness had greeted the Queen in Irish: "Maidin mhaith. Cead mile failte." ("Good morning. A hundred thousand welcomes.") And bade her "Slan agus beannacht" – "Goodbye and farewell" – on departure.

During their private conversation, we were told, he acknowledged her speech in the Irish Republic last year referring to "all the victims" of the conflict, and of being able to "bow to the past but not be bound by it".

A Sinn Féin source said: "He said people had suffered on both sides. He emphasised the need to acknowledge the pain of all the victims of the conflict and their families. And she agreed with him." McGuinness had told her their meeting was "a powerful signal that peace-building requires leadership".

"Let the images speak for themselves. It has been a good, cordial, positive meeting," said the source. The only protests against it had been from "a tiny minority with paintbrushes and a pot of paint".

The Queen, meanwhile, "has always been very open to this", said a royal source, who described her as "relaxed". This was a delicately choreographed 40-minute operation, conducted amid the strictest security, with surrounding roads made sterile, sniffer dogs let loose on every piece of shrubbery, and marksmen on the theatre's roof.

It was also an occasion designed to meet Sinn Féin's sensitivities. Buckingham Palace described it as a "patronage" visit – by the Queen as patron of the charity – stressing it was not connected to the diamond jubilee tour. Peter Sheridan, the chief executive of Co-operation Ireland, said the theatre event "had a neutral, independent feel to it". He had offered it as a venue, but it was only on Friday that Sinn Féin's ruling council accepted, though not unanimously.

Since the Queen's Dublin visit, which Sinn Féin boycotted to wide criticism, there had been a will, but no acceptable way, to engineer such an encounter. The Lyric presentred Sinn Féin with a "doable" opportunity – and one away from jubilee hysteria.

McGuinness, who claims to have left the IRA in 1974, though British and Irish intelligence believe he was active for longer, had acknowledged the difficulties for both himself and the Queen. In an interview before the meeting, he said: "I represent people who have been terribly hurt by British state violence over many years. I also recognise I am going to meet someone who has also been hurt as a result of the conflict, and someone who is very conscious that in many homes in Britain there are parents, wives, children, brothers and sisters of British soldiers who were sent here who lost their lives in the conflict."

After the handshake, there was praise – and grumblings. Dissident republicans claimed Sinn Féin had sold out, ardent unionists claimed Sinn Féin had "hijacked" the jubilee visit. Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland secretary, said: "This will move Northern Ireland on to a whole new plane. After all the trauma of Northern Ireland, everyone is looking forward."

Tony Blair, who oversaw the Good Friday agreement ratified in 1998, acclaimed it as "a magnificent gesture" by the Queen. For the Queen, it was business as usual, as she made her way to a huge jubilee party for 22,000 people at Stormont. It was business as usual, too, for Sinn Féin, with all of its 29 members of the Northern Ireland assembly boycotting the event. "Nobody expects Martin McGuinness would be at an event with 10,000 union flags being waved," a Sinn Féin spokesman was quoted as saying.