Monday 07 April 2014 16.36 President Michael D Higgins has said his State visit to the UK is "very important in many ways" and "it is important for both countries to engage in our shared past".
The President also said he is very, very honoured and privileged to represent the people of Ireland on the trip.
The government jet carrying the President and his wife Sabina has taken off from Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, bound for Heathrow Airport in London.
Also on board are Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore and his wife.
Speaking earlier, Mr Higgins said that progress in the Northern Ireland peace process should not be about forgetting the past.
Mr Higgins will spend four days on the extended visit as a guest of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, a sign he says is symbolic of the importance both countries place on the normalisation of relations more than 90 years after independence.
"The peace process is that, it is a process that comes after the formal agreement at one level.
"Ultimately it is an exercise in consciousness at the level of community," President Higgins said.
"The challenge is to hand to a future generation all of the prospects of the future. You are not inviting them to an amnesia about any deep dispute.
"There are a lot of very difficult memories and it would be to my mind wrong to suggest to anyone that you should as it were, wipe the slate clean.
"I think Her Majesty in coming to Ireland and addressing for example issues of relations between our two people was doing it the right way."
Although President Higgins has travelled to events in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland last year, these were not official visits.
Highlights of the visit beginning tomorrow will include an address the President will make to both Houses of Parliament - another first for an Irish head of state.
President Higgins has expressed gratitude for the extended visit and being invited to stay at Windsor Castle, where he will also get to view the colours of disbanded Irish regiments in the British army.
The President will be joined on the trip by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore.
READ Tommie Gorman's blog on the significance of the State visit
Matters of State and Moving On - visit marks another milestone in Anglo-Irish relations
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