When the Queen becomes the first British monarch in 100 years to visit Dublin next Tuesday she will receive a typically warm Irish welcome.

But even before she disembarks from her plane at the Baldonnel military airbase the Queen will have her first taste of the troubled history of Anglo-Irish relations.

From her plane the Queen will see that the base's formal title is the Casement Aerodrome. It was named after Sir Roger Casement, a member of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy who turned into an Irish nationalist hero after he was hanged for treason at Pentonville Prison in London a few months after the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. Casement, who once served as British consul-general in Rio de Janeiro, had negotiated with Germany to ship arms to Irish Republicans during the first world war. He famously returned to Ireland on a submarine.

No doubt Casement's treason will not be mentioned when the Queen is formally welcomed at the airport by Eamon Gilmore, the deputy prime minister (Tánaiste). But Gilmore will not be bowing to the Queen. Irish republicans tend not to bow or curtsy to a British monarch.

The Queen is likely to be supremely relaxed by the absence of bows and curtsies. The atmosphere will be wholly different to the time when Paul Keating, the former Australian prime minister, committed lese-majesty by placing his arm round the Queen. On visits down under she is Queen of Australia.

During her four-day visit to the Irish Republic the Queen will be a foreign head of state, enjoying the same status as Barack Obama who will visit the following week. But the Queen's visit will be laden with symbolism as the granddaughter of King George V, the last British monarch to visit Dublin in 1911, sets the seal on the full normalisation of Anglo-Irish relations after a political settlement was finally reached in Northern Ireland.

As I wrote in a recent blog the visit has been carefully balanced to reflect the complexity of relations between the two islands.

The Queen will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony on the first day of her visit at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin that commemorates the Irish republicans who tried to overthrow George V's rule over Ireland in the Easter Rising. The visit to the shrine of Irish nationalism will be balanced on Wednesday when the Queen takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Irish War Memorial Garden, Islandbridge, in Dublin. This commemorates Irish soldiers who died in British or allied uniforms during the first and second world wars.

David Cameron will show this is no ordinary state visit when he joins the Queen in Dublin on Wednesday. William Hague will follow precedent by accompanying the Queen for the whole visit. But the prime minister will show this is one of the most special state visits of the Queen's reign when he attends a banquet at Dublin Castle, the former seat of British rule, where she will deliver her only speech of the visit. This has been pored over in the Foreign Office and Downing Street.