Gerry Adams: Queen regret not enough

Dublin, Ireland (CNN) -- Queen Elizabeth II's expression of sympathy for those who suffered during the long, bloody conflict between Ireland and England does not go far enough, the head of the Irish republican Sinn Fein party said Thursday.

Her "acknowledgement that the relationship between Britain and Ireland has not been entirely benign is a gross understatement," Gerry Adams said in a statement.

The queen is on a historic four-day visit to the Republic of Ireland, the first by a British monarch since Irish independence from London 90 years ago.

Adams, a pivotal figure in Northern Irish history as long-time leader of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political arm, said earlier that the queen's visit was "premature."

But that is mild compared to incendiary language he has used in the past, according to a journalist formerly based in Ireland.

"When the queen's cousin Lord Mountbatten was killed by the IRA in 1979, (Adams) said it was an execution that was fully justified," Toby Harden said.

Wednesday night, Queen Elizabeth expressed regret for the suffering of people on both sides.

"We can never forget those who have died or been injured, and their families. To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past, I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy," she said.

Adams said he thought her sympathy was "genuine."

But he said it was not enough, demanding that "the future policy of her government (be) about building an entirely new future based on genuine equality, and mutual respect."

The queen, who was applauded when she began her remarks Wednesday night in the Irish language, acknowledged the complex relationship between the neighbors separated by water and different cultures.

On Tuesday she laid a wreath at the Dublin's Garden of Remembrance, which honors those who fought for Irish freedom from British rule.

During a trip laced with historically significant gestures, the queen has visited the National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge and Croke Park Stadium, where British troops opened fire on a crowd watching a Gaelic football match in November 1920, killing 14. The massacre was sparked by the murder of 14 British intelligence officers by the Irish Republican Army.

The visit has prompted police to mount a major security operation amid threats of dissident republican violence. Ireland has spent an estimated $42 million on security for the visit, according to officials.

Scuffles between protesters and police broke out Tuesday afternoon in central Dublin and the Irish military defused a bomb on a bus headed to Dublin. The military had stopped a private bus in Maynooth, evacuated the passengers and found a "viable device" in the luggage compartment, a spokesman for the Irish national police said.

The Irish War of Independence led to the partition of Ireland in 1921. The majority of the island gained independence, but six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster chose to stay in the United Kingdom, eventually becoming Northern Ireland.

In the late 1960s, the conflict between mainly Protestant unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK and largely Roman Catholic nationalists who want the North to be reunited with the rest of Ireland exploded into a political and sectarian war, known as the Troubles.

The ensuing three decades of violence between the Irish Republican Army and loyalists claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, most of them north of the border, and while the Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998, effectively ended the conflict, suspicions remain.

CNN's Peter Wilkinson and Fionnuala Sweeney and Journalist Peter Taggart contributed to this report.

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Queen due at stadium in symbolic move

Dublin, Ireland (CNN) -- Queen Elizabeth II is due to visit Croke Park stadium in Dublin Wednesday on the second day of her landmark tour to Ireland.

The visit to Croke Park is another significant symbolic gesture of reconciliation -- British troops opened fire on a crowd watching a Gaelic football match there in 1920, killing 14.

On Wednesday morning the queen met the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and senior cabinet ministers at Government Buildings as part of her state tour, the first by a UK monarch since the country gained independence in 1921.

Gerry O'Regan, editor of the Irish Independent, said: "This is a triumph of really careful planning and shows a strong intent on both sides to make it work."

On Tuesday the queen laid a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin in a joint ceremony with Irish President Mary McAleese. The Garden of Remembrance honors those who fought for Irish freedom from British rule.

During her stay, the queen will also visit the National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge and on Wednesday evening, accompanied by British Prime Minister David Cameron, the queen will attend a state banquet at Dublin Castle.

The visit has prompted police to mount a major security operation amid threats of dissident republican violence. Ireland has spent $42 million on security for the visit, according to officials.

On Tuesday scuffles between protesters and police broke out in central Dublin, 22 people were arrested.

The Irish military Tuesday defused a bomb Tuesday morning on a bus headed to Dublin. The military had stopped a private bus in Maynooth, evacuated the passengers and found a "viable device" in the luggage compartment, a spokesman for the Irish national police said.

The queen's visit is one that many in Ireland believed would never happen, and marks the reconciliation between two neighboring countries that once viewed each other with suspicion and hostility.

Ireland's fight to free itself from its former imperial master is likely to form much of the narrative of the visit.

There will be constant reminders of the violent past. The queen's plane touched down, for example, at Casement Aerodrome, a military airfield named after Roger Casement, who was executed for treason in 1916 for conspiring with the Germans. His fate was sealed when the queen's grandfather, George V, refused to commute his death sentence.

The Irish War of Independence that the killing was a part of directly led to the partition of Ireland in 1921. The majority of the island gained independence, but six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster chose to stay in the United Kingdom, eventually becoming the country of Northern Ireland.

In the late 1960s the conflict between mainly Protestant unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK and largely Roman Catholic nationalists who want the North to be reunited with the rest of Ireland exploded into a political and sectarian war, known as the Troubles.

The ensuing three decades of violence between the Irish Republican Army and loyalists claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, most of them north of the border, and while the Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998, effectively ended the conflict, suspicions remain. It is for this reason that the queen's visit is more than symbolic.

Under the terms of the accord, terrorist groups on both sides dumped their weapons, and political allies of both sides now work together in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government.

The change has been so rapid that, even as recently as the late 1990s, one journalist said he could never have imagined a state visit by the queen. Toby Harnden, who covered Ireland for the Daily Telegraph, said while some people on both sides still have their doubts over the visit -- for different reasons -- more significant is the peaceable language used in the debate.

"Some Catholics will see this as Britain cementing its claim over the Irish territory of the six counties of Northern Ireland," Harnden said.

Meanwhile "the Protestants will see the queen's visit as ratification of a state that they believe is constitutionally hostile to any British presence in Ireland. So on both sides there'll be qualms."

Gerry Adams, a pivotal figure in Northern Irish history as long-time leader of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political arm, said the queen's visit was "premature." Compared with incendiary language he had used in the past, Adams' comment speaks volumes, Harnden said.

For instance, "when the queen's cousin Lord Mountbatten was killed by the IRA in 1979, (Adams) said it was an execution that was fully justified."

"When I was there the IRA cease-fire had collapsed, there was violence and killings, no surrender, no compromise. In those days there was no likelihood of the queen ever visiting."

CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney and Peter Wilkinson contributed to this report.

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Ireland: What Queen Elizabeth II's First-Ever Visit Means (Time.com)

In the coming weeks, Ireland will host two of the world's most recognizable VIPs: Queen Elizabeth II and President Barack Obama. And as the country gets ready, the taxi drivers of Dublin are seeing the careful - and sometimes inconvenient - preparations up close. "The police have been down every manhole in Dublin twice at this stage," says one, describing the increase in security that includes the inspection of the city's sewers for bombs.

Ireland is taking no chances with its high-profile guests: reports say that around 10,000 police officers and military personnel will be deployed over the course of the two visits. But it is the Queen's arrival in Dublin on Tuesday that makes the Irish police force most nervous. Not everyone in Ireland is happy to see the Queen, whose four-day visit - the first ever by a British monarch to the Republic - has put into action the state's biggest-ever security operation. (See pictures of the world's most beautiful tiaras.)

The reluctance of the Queen and her father King George VI before her to visit England's closest neighbor stems from centuries of British occupation of Ireland. While the Republic of Ireland fought its way to independence with the founding of the Free State in 1922 and establishment of the Republic in 1937, Northern Ireland stayed under British rule. Sectarian tensions between Catholic republicans and Protestant unionists in the region grew, until they erupted into three decades of violence, during which over 3,600 people were killed.

The Troubles, as they are called, ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. But until recently, the historical unrest made a visit by the Queen to the Republic seem an impossibility. So the announcement last month of her visit was viewed by some as a sign of political maturity. But the symbolism of the visit has also stirred up deep resentment among some Irish. On Easter Monday, a representative of the splinter sectarian group called the Real IRA appeared in a video statement wearing a balaclava and military clothing and referred to the visit as "the upcoming insult" and the government's invite as unrepresentative of the wishes of the Irish people. "The Queen of England is wanted for war crimes in Ireland and not wanted on Irish soil," he said. "We will do our best to ensure she and the gombeen [corrupt] class that act as her cheerleaders get that message." The statement also included a threat to kill more Northern Irish police officers just weeks after the murder of Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr in Omagh. (Read "Tragic but Not Troubled: The Murder of a Northern Irish Policeman.")

Meanwhile, the republican group Eirigi (Rise Up) has placed a countdown timer on its website, calling for the Queen's visit to be met with "widespread opposition and protest." The group is asking those against the visit to occupy the Garden of Remembrance, a memorial park in Dublin dedicated to those who fought for Irish freedom, which is part of the Queen's official itinerary. She will also go to Croke Park Stadium, the headquarters of Ireland's two national sports, Gaelic football and hurling, and the site of one of the bloodiest days of the War of Independence, when 14 civilians were killed by British forces retaliating the killing of British undercover agents earlier in the day.

For supporters, the Queen's visit is a chance to show how the U.K. and Ireland have "moved on" - a term that galls some Irish. But even Sinn Fein, Ireland's most staunchly republican political party, seems to have relaxed its earlier outright opposition. In a statement on the party's website on Saturday, leader Gerry Adams said, "I am for a new relationship between ... the people of Ireland and Britain based on equal and mutual respect. I hope this visit will hasten that day, but much will depend on what the British monarch says." (See more on Ireland's recent election.)

But given that the Irish are living under tight austerity measures after getting a $96 billion bailout from the E.U. and the International Monetary Fund, can the country even afford its famous guests? Security costs for the visits by the Queen and Obama a week later will reach an estimated $42 million, according to unconfirmed reports.

James Connolly Heron, the great grandson of James Connolly, an icon of the Irish struggle for independence, questions the appropriateness of spending taxpayers' money to play host when the country is broke. "It appears no consideration was given to paring down the visit as regards to where we are economically," he says, adding that he feels talk of Ireland "moving on" is nonsense given the level of security required during the Queen's time in the country. (See pictures of the British army leaving Northern Ireland.)

But Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has called both visits "an investment for the future," citing the benefits they will bring in the way of tourism and business. Given all the bad news surrounding the country of late, Kenny added, they could also be good for Ireland's image. And many Irish hope he's right. "The eyes of the world are going to be on Ireland, so hopefully the Queen's visit will showcase the country," says taxi driver Stuart Batt. "It's an opportunity for the world to view us positively in these negative times."

See TIME's complete coverage of the royal wedding.

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