queen elizabeth visit to northern ireland 1953

Queen’s visits to Northern Ireland as princess and monarch

• Northern Ireland
• Friday 9 September 2022 at 8:20pm

Paul Clark reflects on the Queen's many visits to Northern Ireland.

The Queen visited Northern Ireland on 25 occasions, both as monarch and princess.

1. 17th July 1945

Her first visit came when she was just 19 years old as part of a ‘Victory Tour’ of the UK after World War Two, with her parents King George VI and her mother Queen Elizabeth.

Engagements included meeting with veterans outside Stormont, a garden party with war workers in Botanic Gardens and meeting American military personnel in Londonderry.

2. 18th - 21st March 1946

Princess Elizabeth took her first solo trip outside of Great Britain in 1946, visiting Northern Ireland.

She visited Harland & Wolff shipyard to launch HMS Eagle, with schoolchildren given the day off to line the streets of Belfast.

She also made stop offs in Dungannon, Armagh, Enniskillen and Comber.

3. 23rd - 28th May 1949

Princess Elizabeth took her first trip to Northern Ireland with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1949.

During this trip, they were both conferred the Freedom of Belfast.

They also visited the then Royal Ulster Agricultural Show in the Balmoral Showground - more commonly known now as the Balmoral Show.

4. 1st - 3rd July 1953

Queen Elizabeth II first came to Northern Ireland as monarch in 1953, just a month after her coronation.

A public holiday was declared by the Governor of Northern Ireland, Lord Wakehurst, so that as many people as possible could see the Queen.

Along with taking a grand railway tour to the north west, the Queen also visited Belfast.

5. 17th August 1954

In her second visit to Northern Ireland as monarch, the Queen launched a new liner, the Southern Cross at Harland & Wolff Shipyard.

It was one of the most luxurious ocean liners of the time.

Her visit was only a short one, with political tensions growing across Northern Ireland.

6. 8th - 9th August 1961

It would be another seven years before the Queen visited Northern Ireland, this time accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

The family arrived in Carrickfergus on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

They also visited Bangor where the Queen watched a regatta from the Royal Ulster Yacht Club.

7. 4th - 6th July 1966

On her visit in 1966, the monarch opened the Queen Elizabeth II bridge across the River Lagan in Belfast.

However, her visit grabbed the headlines for the wrong reasons.

A brick was dropped from a high building onto the bonnet of the royal car during its cavalcade through Belfast city centre.

8. 10th - 11th June 1977

It wasn’t until 1977 that the Queen next visited Northern Ireland for her Silver Jubilee.

For most of the trip, and with the Troubles raging, the Queen remained in Belfast Harbour on the Royal Yacht being taken by helicopter to various visits.

During the visit there were a number of anti-royal demonstrations in nationalist areas with slogans such as ‘Queen of Death’ and ‘Stuff the Jubilee’ being commonplace.

9. 29th June 1991

For the entirety of the 1980s the Queen did not visit Northern Ireland with the ongoing political situation.

Her June 1991 visit was tightly controlled with a strict news blackout enforced until her arrival.

She visited the Army’s Thiepval headquarters and she also hosted a garden party at Hillsborough Castle for victims of the Troubles.

10. 11th June 1993

The Queen’s one-day visit in 1993 came just weeks after the monarch met Irish President Mary Robinson in Buckingham Palace. That was the first official contact between the two respective heads of state.

The Queen was received in Northern Ireland by the then Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew.

During her short one-day visit she attended a lunch and garden party at Hillsborough Castle.

11. 9th March 1995

The Queen’s visit to Northern Ireland in 1995 with the Duke of Edinburgh was highly symbolic. It was the first since the IRA Ceasefire in the previous year.

It was also the Queen’s first ever meeting with the Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, as well as his Anglican counterpart, Archbishop Robin Eames.

The Queen also visited Belfast, meeting politicians including the DUP MP Peter Robinson who would later become First Minister of Northern Ireland.

12. 11th June 1997

This was the Queen’s final visit to Northern Ireland before the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.

During this one-day visit, she travelled to Belfast and Dungannon, where she met Catholic and Protestant school children.

She also held a Garden Party in Hillsborough Castle for around 2,000 people.

13. 12th April 2000

In her first visit to Northern Ireland since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the Queen presented the RUC with the highest award of bravery, the George Cross.

During the ceremony at Hillsborough Castle the Queen praised the "outstanding contribution" made by the RUC to peace in Northern Ireland.

However, some republicans were critical of the event arguing that many had suffered at the hands of the RUC.

14. 15th November 2001

During the Queen’s visit, she met with the then First and deputy First Ministers, David Trimble and Mark Durkan.

She also had her first engagement in Derry since 1953, visiting the Maydown Ebrington Centre.

She also made visits to Banbridge, Hillsborough and Lisburn.

15. 13th - 15th May 2002

The Queen came to Northern Ireland in 2002 as part of celebrations for her Golden Jubilee.

During the visit, she spoke at Stormont telling politicians: “You now have a better future for Northern Ireland in your grasp.”

In her three-day tour, she also visited Omagh to the bombing of the town in 1998 which killed 29 people.

She also conferred city status on Lisburn and Newry.

16. 26th February 2003

In 2003, the Queen officially opened the £30million Laganside Court complex in Belfast.

She also attended an engagement at the £45m Halifax Bank of Scotland call centre building, as part of the regeneration of the city’s Waterfront area.

Other engagements included with charities including Help the Aged and Action Cancer.

17. 7th - 8th December 2005

The Queen’s visit in 2005 will be remembered for the meeting between the monarch and Irish President Mary McAleese.

It was the first time any such meeting had taken place on the island of Ireland.

The Queen met a mother and toddler group in Hillsborough, and also visited the Belfast Central Mission.

18. 6th October 2006

Prince Andrew, Duke of York joined the Queen on her visit to Northern Ireland in 2006.

Whilst here, she awarded The Royal Irish Regiment the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross in recognition of the bravery, sacrifice and service of the Home Service battalions of The Royal Irish Regiment and their forebears, The Ulster Defence Regiment.

In her speech to the regiment she said: “Your contribution to peace and stability within Northern Ireland has been unique.”

19. 1st June 2007

The Queen returned to Coleraine in her first visit to the town since 1977.

While in Coleraine, she attended a garden party at the Ulster University campus, hosted by then Secretary of State Peter Hain.

The event was attended by numerous organisations from the community and voluntary sector.

20. 18th - 20th March 2008

In 2008, the Queen held her annual Maundy Thursday service at St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh.

It was the first time in the Queen’s reign that it had been held outside England and Wales.

On this three-day visit, she also met members of the Territorial Army and also with Irish President Mary McAleese at Queen’s University Belfast.

21. 6th to 8th May 2009

On her royal visit in 2009, the Queen again travelled to Derry, this time for an engagement at Lisneal College.

The Queen was in North Down to visit the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust in Holywood and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in Bangor.

The three-day tour concluded with a visit to the FE McWilliam Art Gallery near Banbridge.

22. 21st - 22nd October 2010

The Queen visited UTV’s studios in Havelock House on the Ormeau Road to mark the broadcaster’s launch of high definition television. A first for the island of Ireland.

The Queen also met around 180 guests at a reception which celebrated 150 years of Cadet Forces.

A reception was also held at Hillsborough Castle for the charity Children in Action, which the Queen was a patron of.

23. 26th - 27th June 2012

During the two-day trip, marking her Diamond Jubilee, the Queen visited Enniskillen - a trip that will be remembered for her visit to both the Church of Ireland and the Catholic cathedrals in the town.

In fact, her visit to St Michael’s marked the first time the Queen had set foot in a Catholic Church on the island of Ireland.

The following day saw an even more historic moment - in a reception at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre, the Queen shook hands with the then Sinn Féin deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness.

24. 23rd - 25th June 2014

The Queen visited the set of HBO TV series Game of Thrones in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter.

She also had various engagements in Belfast City Centre including a lunch at City Hall and a tour around St George’s Market.

She also visited Crumlin Road Gaol in north Belfast, accompanied by the First and deputy First Ministers Peter Robinson and Martin McGuiness - both of whom were detained in the jail during the Troubles.

25. 27th - 28th June 2016

In her final and most recent visit to Northern Ireland, the Queen paid a trip to the Giant’s Causeway on the North Coast.

She also visited the nearby Bushmills where she unveiled a statue to the Victoria Cross recipient Robert Quigg.

The Queen also took a steam train through Coleraine and Bellarena - a trip that harked back to her coronation tour of 1953.

The remarkable life of the Queen remembered in our latest episode of What You Need To Know

Queen Elizabeth visited Northern Ireland 22 times over a 70-year reign, dividing opinions

Throughout Queen Elizabeth's reign over Northern Ireland, local opinions of her were as divided as the territory.

Her rule spanned all the years of The Troubles, in which more than 3,000 died in sectarian conflict.

King Charles III  visited Belfast for the first time on Tuesday, just days after being proclaimed as King.

Loyalists in Northern Ireland, who want to keep the region under British rule, remain among the royal family's most devoted subjects.

So how often did the Queen visit Northern Ireland, what were the key moments during her time there, and how did this compare with visits to other parts of the UK?

'Almost cemented the peace process'

The Queen visited Northern Ireland 22 times during her reign, and three times before she was crowned.

The first visit was in 1945. In 1953 she returned again, this time as monarch.

Following visits in 1954 and 1961, the Queen returned to Belfast in 1966 to open a bridge named in her honour.

After staying away for 11 years, the Queen visited Northern Ireland as part of Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977.

She was not to return for another 14 years, as The Troubles escalated and security concerns increased.

In 1979, Lord Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of the Queen and a much-loved mentor to the then-Prince Charles, was killed by an Irish Republican Army bomb.

The Queen did not return to the country until 1991. The majority of her visits came during the 1990s and 2000s, after the peace process took hold.

In 2012, in one of her most important visits to Belfast, she shook the hand of former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, who at the time was Northern Ireland's deputy first minister and a leading Sinn Féin politician.

The gesture "almost cemented the peace process" 14 years after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement largely ended the violence, said Peter Sheridan, head of peace-building organisation Co-operation Ireland, who organised the event and was metres away when the two shook hands.

The Queen made it back three times after that critical 2012 visit, but had to cancel a planned 2021 appearance at an Armagh church service commemorating the establishment of Northern Ireland 100 years earlier.

"Over the last half century I have always enjoyed my visits to Northern Ireland," she told the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2002.

"Even in the most troubled of times I have been heartened by the warmth and good humour of the people I have met."

Members of Sinn Féin — the main Irish nationalist party, linked during The Troubles to the IRA — are attending commemorative events for the Queen and met King Charles II on Tuesday.

Sinn Fein's president Mary Lou McDonald paid tribute to the 96-year-old monarch following her death last Thursday, calling her "a powerful advocate and ally of those who believe in peace and reconciliation".

Nonetheless, Ms McDonald has made it clear that her party will pursue a referendum on reunification with Ireland.

"We've built the peace and now we look to the next phase, the reunification of Ireland, we are living now in the end days of partition and the momentum behind Irish unity is unprecedented," Ms McDonald told the Irish Independent.

The Queen was also the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since its independence from London almost a century earlier.

'The Queen did not shy away'

The Queen's trip to the Republic of Ireland in 2011 was described by Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Thursday as being crucial in the normalisation of relations.

She made powerful gestures of reconciliation for Britain's bloody past in Ireland during the four-day state visit, culminating in a speech in which she expressed regret for centuries of conflict.

"During those memorable few days, the Queen did not shy away from the shadows of the past," Ireland's President Michael D Higgins said in a statement.

The Queen's use of the Irish language, once banned under British rule, drew an audible grasp from then Irish President Mary McAleese and a spontaneous round of applause from the guests at Dublin Castle, the former nerve centre of British rule in Ireland.

Other symbolic moments included the laying of a wreath to those who died fighting the British crown and stepping out onto Dublin's Croke Park stadium, the scene of a massacre of 14 people by British forces almost a century earlier.

Her description of the two countries as "firm friends and equal partners" put relations with the former colony at an all-time high, after the fraught decades that followed the 1919-1921 War of Independence.

Many visits to Wales, countless trips to Scotland

While her trips to Northern Ireland were heavy with significance, the Queen travelled far more extensively in other countries within the United Kingdom.

In 1948, the then-Princess Elizabeth was given the Freedom of the City of Cardiff.

According to the BBC, the Queen made more than than 300 visits to Wales, often travelling there by royal train.

At age 17, she visited Wales on her first civil tour of the UK.

Her last official trip to Wales was in October 2021, for the opening of the Welsh parliament.

Meanwhile, few places held a spot in her heart like Scotland, where the Queen had deep ties and visited innumerable times.

Besides spending her summer months at Balmoral, her mother, the late Queen Mother, was Scottish and as a child the Queen grew up playing on her grandparents' estate of Glamis Castle in central Scotland.

"Each year, the Queen spends a week visiting various regions in Scotland, meeting Scots from all walks of life and hosting thousands at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in recognition of their good work," the UK royals website said.

"Known in Scotland as Royal Week, and to others as Holyrood Week, these visits celebrate Scottish culture, achievement and community."

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon praised the Queen on Monday as "the Queen of Scots" and "the great constant — the anchor of our nation".

The Queen spent her last days at her beloved Highland retreat, Balmoral Castle.

She was thought to have felt the most free at Balmoral Castle, where she could retreat, though not escape entirely, from the pressures of the monarchy.

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Queen Elizabeth II's State Visit to Northern Ireland, 1953

Photograph, 1953.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh with (second from left) General Sir Gerald Walter Robert Templer (1898-1979).

The state visit to Northern Ireland occurred just a month after Elizabeth II's coronation in London. The Queen and Prince Philip visited Lisburn, Hillsborough, Belfast, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine, Lisahally and Londonderry.

NAM Accession Number

NAM. 1974-10-14-1

Copyright/Ownership

National Army Museum, Out of Copyright

National Army Museum, Study collection

https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1974-10-14-1

National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, London, SW3 4HT Registered Charity Number: 237902

Visit of Queen Elizabeth and Duke of Edinburgh at Coleraine, June 1953

Sammy walker collection, archive attributes, collection:.

  Coleraine Town Hall

  Coleraine Museum

  Document

Added to archive:

 23-03-2018

The Royal Watcher

Queen in northern ireland, 1953.

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The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were on a three-day visit to Northern Ireland on this day in 1953, following the Queen’s Coronation . The highlight of the visit was the Banquet hosted by Governor Lord Wakehurst with Lady Wakehurst in honour of the Queen (wearing the  Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara , Nizam of Hyderabad Necklace , and Coronation Earrings ) and Duke of Edinburgh at Hillsborough Castle.

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Queen Elizabeth II's royal visits to Northern Ireland in pictures

Following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II , people across Northern Ireland have been paying tribute.

As we mourn her death, we've taken a look back at some of the Royal visits, including the Coronation and Jubilee celebrations.

The Queen’s first official visit to Northern Ireland was as Princess Elizabeth in 1945 alongside her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

The visit was part of a ‘Victory Tour’ of the UK following the Second World War, and engagements included a Garden Party held for war workers at Belfasts Botanic Gardens.

Her first visit as Queen followed her Coronation in 1953, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh.

The couple visited a number of towns and cities including Lisburn, Hillsborough, Belfast, Ballymena, Ballymoney and Coleraine.

During her last visit to Northern Ireland, the Queen took a trip down memory lane alongside The Duke of Edinburgh, retracing part of the rail journey she made on 1953 Coronation Tour.

Take a look through an archive of pictures from the Queen's previous Royal visits to Northern Ireland:

Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, with Sir Frederick Rebbeck the managing director of Harland and Wolff, on the launching platform of the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, 19th March 1946

Princess Elizabeth launching HMS Eagle at Belfast on 19th March 1946

Queen Elizabeth II attends an address of loyalty at the Northern Ireland Parliament, 1953

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh smile happily as they watch drummers outside Government House. Earlier the Royal couple had arrived at Hillsborough for their three-day visit to Northern Ireland. July 2, 1953

Queen Elizabeth II talking to guests at a garden party in Coleraine, July 1953

Queen Elizabeth II meets a group of young people during her walkabout at the New University of Ulster in Coleraine, the second day of her Silver Jubilee visit to Northern Ireland, August 1977

Queen Elizabeth ll inspects the UDR at Lisburn's Thiepvall Barracks, during the Royal Visit To Northern Ireland in June 1991

Queen Elizabeth II addresses members of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, May 2002

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh meet Irish President Mary McAleese and her husband Dr. Martin McAleese at Hillsborough Castle, December 2005

The final parade and decommissioning of the Royal Irish regiments of the British Army as part of the military restructuring, Belfast, October, 2006.

Queen Elizabeth ll arrives at St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh City, Northern Ireland for the traditional Maundy Service on March 20th, 2008

Queen Elizabeth II is presented with a history of the Royal schools by Stuart Dean. She was guest of honour at a reception held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the five Royal schools of Ulster, March 2008

Queen Elizabeth II chats with broadcasters at the Ulster Television Studios in Belfast, where she switched on the stations HD Service, Oct 2010

Queen Elizabeth II chats with broadcasters as she pays a visit to the Ulster Television Studios in Belfast, where she switched on the stations HD Service in October 2010

Queen Elizabeth II surveys the crowds in the grounds of Stormont as part of the Diamond Jubilee tour in June 2012.

Queen Elizabeth II shakes hands with Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness watched by First Minister Peter Robinson at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, March 2012

Queen Elizabeth II meets Jonathan Hegan, MBE, Chairman of Titanic Foundation Limited at the official opening of the Titanic building in Belfast, during her Diamond Jubilee Tour of Northern Ireland in 2012

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh tours St.Georges Market in Belfast, Tuesday June 24th, 2014.

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh during a visit to the set of Game of Thrones in June 2014

Queen Elizabeth II signs the visitor book prior to departing Hillsborough Castle, on the final day of her visit to Northern Ireland in 2014

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, visited the Giant's Causeway, celebrating her 90th birthday in June 2016

Local people pay respects to the Queen at Hillsborough Castle gates

Queen Elizabeth II's death: What happens next?

Prince of Wales becomes King Charles III after Queen's death

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