LONDON // The largest security operation in the Irish Republic's history awaits Queen Elizabeth II today as she embarks on a historic, four-day visit to the country.
The Queen will be the first British monarch to set foot in Dublin since George V exactly 100 years ago - a time when all of Ireland was ruled from London.
Now, with terror attacks by nationalists increasing in Northern Ireland, which remains part of the United Kingdom, the security services fear the Queen's visit could provide paramilitaries with an irresistible opportunity for further outrages or, at the very least, publicity stunts and protests.
Leave has been cancelled for 8,000 police officers - 4,000 of whom will be on duty at any one time - and 2,000 troops who will guard the Queen.
Additionally, the Dublin government has taken the unusual step of giving permission for undercover, armed British police to patrol the streets throughout the visit.
Surveillance has also been increased on suspected republican dissidents and several arrests have been made both in Eire and Northern Ireland in recent days.
One of those taken in for questioning is believed to be the chief of staff of the Real IRA, the group blamed for the 1998 car bombing in Omagh that killed 28 people.
Also yesterday the veteran Irish militant Marian Price, 57, who served 20 years of a life sentence for bombing London in the 1970s, was returned to prison after the government revoked her parole licence. Price appeared at a rally last month at which masked gunmen threatened new attacks. She was charged under the Terrorism Act in connection with the rally.
The Irish government has even borrowed two water cannon from the Police Service of Northern Ireland to help cope with any rioting on the streets of Dublin.
Yesterday 500 troops sealed off the military airfield on the outskirts of the capital where the royal flight will touch down this afternoon.
Protests by groups wanting to see all of Ireland united as a republic are planned throughout the trip, in which the Queen will carry out engagements in Cork, Kildare and Tipperary as well as Dublin.
A security source in London said yesterday: "We are not so much worried about a direct attempt on the Queen's life although, obviously, we are prepared for such a possibility. But our main concerns centre on possible outrages or stunts by republican extremists intended to generate worldwide publicity."
Yesterday, British police said they received a warning of a bomb in London from an Irish republican dissident group and closed a major road leading to Buckingham Palace for several hours.
Caught up in the middle of all the security arrangements and road closures are Ireland's motorists and commuters. And they will find there is little relief even after the Queen returns to Britain at the weekend - the restrictions in Dublin are to remain in place because the US president Barack Obama is visiting next week.
But today, Enda Kenny, the Irish premier, is looking forward to the arrival of the Queen. He said he believes the royal visit would mark "the start of a new era" and remained confident that the Queen would be warmly welcomed by most Irish people. "The visit of the Queen is symbolically a healing of the past and facing with courage to the future," he added.
In an interview to be broadcast tonight by the state broadcaster RTE, the Irish president Mary McAleese will insist that the time is right for the first visit to the state by a British monarch since independence.
"I think it is an extraordinary moment in Irish history," she will say in the pre-recorded interview.
It is "absolutely the right moment for us to welcome on to Irish soil, Her Majesty the Queen, the head of state of our immediate next-door neighbours - the people with whom we are forging a new future, a future very, very different from the past, on very different terms from the past and I think that visit will send the message that we are, both jurisdictions, determined to make the future a much, much better place."
dsapsted@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
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The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump and Other Pieces 1986-2016
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”