McGuinness hails 'important' visit to Queen's home
Martin McGuinness has described his decision to attend a banquet hosted by the Queen as "an important thing to do" that sends "a message to everybody about how things have changed".
Irish Taoiseach welcomes McGuinness royal banquet
Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny welcomed the decision to invite Northern Ireland deputy Prime Minister Martin McGuinness as a special guest of the Queen during the first official state visit of the President of Ireland to England.
The former MP, who refused to sit in the House of Commons because he would have had to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen, previously did not attend a banquet in the Queen's honour at Dublin Castle in 2011.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr programmes, Mr Kenny said he did not see why the former IRA commander would not attend.
Mr Kenny also raised the prospect of a royal visit to Ireland during the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, when Ireland declared its independence and revolted against British rule.
The Queen met and shook hands with Martin McGuinness in Belfast two years ago, in what was a historic step forward in Anglo-Irish relations.
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