The Queen will begin a two-day visit to Northern Ireland later as part of her Diamond Jubilee tour.
Her events will include a meeting with former IRA leader Martin McGuinness, who is now Northern Ireland's deputy first minister.
Visits by the Queen to Northern Ireland are normally kept secret until arrival.
This one has been officially announced in advance - a sign of the improved security situation - however, some protests are expected.
The Queen will begin her tour of Belfast and County Fermanagh by attending a thanksgiving church service in Enniskillen.
Senior Protestant and Catholic clergy are expected at the service.
Enniskillen was the scene of one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles when an IRA bomb killed 11 people on Remembrance Sunday in 1987.
Twenty-five years on, the Queen will meet Sinn Fein's Mr McGuinness on day two of her visit, at an arts event in Belfast.
'Risk for peace'Ireland's head of state President Michael D Higgins and Stormont First Minister Peter Robinson will also be there.
In his first interview since the meeting with the Queen was announced, Mr McGuinness described it as "taking a risk for peace".
In the BBC interview, he acknowledged that British soldiers - and the Royal Family - had suffered as a result of the Troubles.
He said: "It's another bit of history. It's about recognising, in terms of my own community where I come from, that there have been many people who have been badly hurt as a result of state violence.
"But it's also recognising that others have lost too - the British soldiers who were sent here by politicians have also lost their lives, members of the RUC, the UDR, the Queen herself lost someone who was a member of her family (Lord Mountbatten).
"So I think it's important that we all recognise that we're in a different place."
These were significant words from Mr McGuinness, demonstrating how Sinn Fein's language has become increasingly more moderate over recent years.
ReconciliationHowever, he insisted that agreeing to meet the British Queen did not not stop him being a committed Irish republican.
He said: "I am an Irish republican, I want to see a process of national reconciliation on this island but also a reconciliation between this island and Britain.
"It's also an opportunity to give unionists a glimpse of what a reunited Ireland would look like."
The two-day visit will be the Queen's 20th trip to Northern Ireland.
Some protests by dissident republicans are expected, but an anti-royal demonstration in Belfast at the weekend only attracted about 300 people.
The Queen's ground-breaking four-day visit to the Irish Republic last year cemented a new era in British-Irish relations.
In spite of speculation that the handshake between Mr McGuinness and the Queen would be off-camera, Mr McGuinness said he had no objection to the encounter being photographed.
- There will be coverage of the Queen's Jubilee visit to Northern Ireland from 10:45 BST on BBC One, which will be streamed live on the BBC NI news website. There will also be an extended Talkback on Radio Ulster from 10:45 BST until 13:30 BST.
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