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Monarch's tour of Northern Ireland has included visits to the Game of Thrones set and a meeting with former IRA leader Martin McGuinness

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The Queen declined to sit on the Iron Throne when she visited the set of HBO’s Game of Thrones in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter on June, 24, 2014, the second day of a three-day visit to Northern Ireland.PETER MORRISON/The Associated Press

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Instead, the monarch was presented with a miniature replica of the Iron Throne, seat of government in the show’s fictional kingdom of Westeros.PHIL NOBLE/Reuters

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The Queen and Prince Philip talk with members of the cast – including Sophie Turner, second right – on the Game of Thrones set.PHIL NOBLE/Reuters

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Portraits of the Queen and Prince Philip fly over a road amongst the national flags of Britain and Northern Ireland in the village of Hillsborough, near Belfast, on June 23. The Queen’s visit is seen as a symbolic gesture of Northern Ireland’s progress toward peace since the deadly Troubles of the late 1960s to 1990s.PHIL NOBLE/Reuters

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The Queen meets Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a former IRA leader, during a private audience at Belfast’s Hillsborough Castle on the first day of her trip. This is the Queen’s third meeting with Mr. McGuinness – and her second handshake since she was last in Northern Ireland for the 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations – but this was their first one-on-one visit. Mr. McGuinness said the meeting was “about reaching out the hand of friendship to the unionist community,” BBC News reported.AARON McCRACKEN/The Associated Press

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The Queen walks with Mr. McGuinness, middle right, and Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson, right, at the Crumlin Road jail in Belfast on June 24. Mr. McGuinness was held at the jail in 1976 on charges of IRA membership, and the unionist leader Mr. Robertson was jailed there several times in the 1980s for protests against the Anglo Irish Agreement. It is now a tourist attraction.PAUL FAITH/The Associated Press

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