Political leaders across Ireland unite in tributes to Queen | Northern Ireland

Political leaders across Ireland and Northern Ireland have united in tribute to the Queen and hailed her role in applying balm to centuries of conflict between nationalism and unionism, one of the most consequential uses of her symbolic power.

All sides recalled her landmark visit to Dublin in 2011, when Irish people gave her a rapturous welcome, and her handshake in 2012 with Martin McGuinness, the IRA-leader turned deputy prime minister.

Both occasions represented high-water marks in relations between Britain and Ireland and turned the crown, once synonymous with imperial power and the antithesis of republicanism, into a vehicle for reconciliation.

Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin, saluted the late monarch as a powerful advocate for peace who facilitated a “much-improved and warmer and healthier relationship between the two countries.

“The Queen saw and was part of very big changes. I also acknowledge her loss of her is a very difficult moment for the people of Britain, particularly for unionists in Ireland. It is a very big loss,” she told RTE radio on Friday morning.

The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said the 2011 state visit – when the Queen spoke Irish and laid a wreath for Irish rebels – was a crucial step in normalizing relations.

“That visit was a great success, largely because of the many gracious gestures and warm remarks made by the Queen,” he said. “To her de ella grieving family and people de ella, the Irish government join with you in mourning the loss of an exceptional woman who led by quiet and dignified example and who touched so many lives over her exceptionally long reign de ella.”

Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, said the Queen’s visit was transformative. He said: “I remember the impact that she had… and it was a high point in British Irish relations and she made that possible.”

The Queen’s promotion of reconciliation, notably the handshake with McGuinness, an image that went around the world, resonated all the more given the IRA’s murder of her cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, in 1979.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party, said people across Northern Ireland were deeply sorrowful at her passing. “This is just the saddest news and our hearts are breaking. There is no doubt her majesty de ella the Queen played a very important role in helping to build reconciliation. Her visit from Ella to Dublin was a cathartic moment in the history of British-Irish relations.

The Queen’s death comes at a fraught time for unionists and loyalists who have been rattled by the post-Brexit Irish Sea border and calls for a referendum on Irish unity. Many considered the Queen – whose image adorns murals in loyalist areas – a symbol and safeguard of their British identity.