President Michael D Higgins will meet Britain's King Charles in London tonight ahead of becoming the first Irish Head of State to attend a coronation.
The President and his wife Sabina will be guests at a reception in Buckingham Palace on the eve of the ceremony.
It will be the ninth occasion the two heads of state have met and continues a long-standing friendship between the two.
President Higgins and Mrs Higgins will then attend the coronation tomorrow at Westminster Abbey.
To mark the event, the President and his wife requested the Tree Council of Ireland to plant a native Irish oak tree in the woodland forest of Aurora, Glencree in Co Wicklow.
The gesture is to acknowledge King Charles' commitment to environmental sustainability.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to attend the coronation too as will Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O'Neill.
UK set for pomp and protests on coronation weekend
President Higgins and King Charles have met in person on eight previous occasions:
- 8 April 2014 - State Visit by President Higgins to the UK
- 24 April 2015 - Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, where the President and his wife visited V-Beach Cemetery with then Prince Charles and Prince Harry
- 20 May 2015 - Private Dinner at Lough Cutra, Co Galway
- 10 May 2017 - Young People Working in Pursuit of Excellence and Ethics event, featuring young people from all over Ireland representing the worlds of sport, art, music, science, agriculture and advocacy at Áras an Uachtaráin
- 6 September 2017 - Dumfries House 10th anniversary celebration, Scotland
- 12 February 2019 - University of Liverpool where they cemented their roles as joint patrons of the Institute of Irish Studies
- 20 May 2019 - Glencree, Co Wicklow, where they met with representatives of Glencree's Youth Programme and with past participants of Glencree's 'Women’s Leadership Programme’
- 13 September 2022 - Service of reflection and thanksgiving for the life of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast
The coronation, whose origins date back 1,000 years, will be the biggest ceremonial event since that staged for Queen Elizabeth in 1953.
Dozens of royal fans are camping out in central London ahead of the occasion.
But opinion polls suggest the majority of the British public are not that interested.
A YouGov poll last month found only 33% of those asked cared about it.
Another survey last week found 48% were likely to watch it on television compared to 46% who said the opposite.
Additional reporting Reuters
