With thousands of people lining the streets in Belfast waiting to greet the Queen, concerns have been expressed about the over commercialisation of her Diamond Jubilee - presented by De Beers -tour.
The highlight of the two-day visit will be a historic handshake with former IRA leader Martin McGuinness. However, local resident, Patrick Doherty from the Shankhill Road, voiced the uneasy of many when he spoke about the companies sponsoring the event. "It's not a good idea to have companies like Armalite, Semtex Fireworks or Bobby Sands Taxis involved for obvious reasons. And whose brilliant idea was it to invite Armagh Hospital to present a display of knee operations and G4 security to show off their new prisons vans?"
Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson denied the sposnsorship deals were controversial, adding that "we all have to move on", and denying rumours that Sky News had bid for exclusive coverage of the handshake. He also denied reports that Martin McGuinness had asked to use a special hook hand to show solidarity with radical hate preacher Abu Hamzer.
