Best behaviour for Queen's visit

The Queen during her last visit to Northern Ireland

As the Queen prepares to visit the home of the Northern Ireland Assembly, BBC NI political correspondent Mark Simpson looks ahead to what she might see.

It is just as well that the Queen did not turn up at Stormont a week early.

When she arrives, everyone is expected to be on their best behaviour.

If she had dropped in to see the politicians in action recently, she would have seen another side to them.

Political politeness went out the window, as rival parties squabbled over the merits of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Queen is visiting NI as part of her jubilee tour

Amid all the barracking, baiting and back-biting, there was an outbreak of finger-wagging and paper-waving.

Most of it was coming from the unionist benches as the UUP and the DUP clashed over whether the Agreement was a good thing.

"Oh yes it is!", cried one side.

"Oh no it isn't", insisted the other, or words to that effect.

And when the UUP made a blunder during one of the key votes (by failing to ensure the proper tellers were in the voting lobbies), the DUP had a field day.

Political pantomime

The UUP chief whip Ivan Davis was the target for most of the taunts.

"What a wally!" shouted one DUP assembly member.

"Who's running this party?", laughed another.

"Ivan - you're sacked!".

"Bring back Jim Wilson (the former chief whip)."

On and on it went, with the Speaker almost hoarse after so many calls of "order, order".

It would be a surprise if anyone needs to call for order in front of the Queen.

There is unlikely to be a hair out of place, never mind a word or two.

Unionist fears that Sinn Fein might stage a protest at the visit have been eased by news that Gerry Adams and his assembly colleagues will be staying away from the Royal reception rather boycotting it.

'Irrelevant'

And there were some relatively mild words on the subject from Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly.

"The Queen is someone who unionists hold close to their heart, so I would not object to them talking to the woman in the Assembly or anywhere else."

To him, he said, the Queen was ''quite irrelevant'', and he saw little point in republicans meeting her.

"If I thought talking to the Queen would get the British out of Ireland quicker, then I would be the first person at her door," he said, with a smile.

Parliament Buildings will open its doors to a reigning monarch for the first time, but it will, of course, not be the first Royal visit there.

The building was opened 70 years ago by the then Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VIII.

Work began in 1924 but the official opening was not until November 1932. This was the first of many delays at Stormont.

The visit by the Queen has been planned for some time, as part of the celebrations to mark her 50th year on the throne.

All assembly members are expected to be invited to meet the Royal visitor at a reception, and perhaps hear a short speech.

The bad news for the Queen is that the timing of her visit does not coincide with an actual assembly debate.

Some might argue that this is, in fact, good news.