The Irish State Coach is an enclosed, four-horse-drawn carriage used by the British Royal Family. It is the traditional horse-drawn coach in which the British monarch travels from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster to formally open the new legislative session of the UK Parliament.
The original Irish State Coach was built in 1851 by the Lord Mayor of Dublin. It was extensively damaged by fire in 1911, and completely restored in 1989 by the Royal Mews carriage restorers. The exterior is blue and black with gilt decoration and the interior is covered in blue damask. It is normally driven from the box seat using four horses. Along with several other Royal state coaches, it is stored in the Royal Mews, where it can be seen by the public.
Famous quotes containing the words irish, state and/or coach:
“The Irish are the only men who know how to cry for the dirty polluted blood of all the world.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“The state does not demand justice of its members, but thinks that it succeeds very well with the least degree of it, hardly more than rogues practice; and so do the neighborhood and the family. What is commonly called Friendship even is only a little more honor among rogues.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Dr. Birdsell, my dramatic coach in school, always said that I was the most melancholy Dane that he had ever directed.”
—Donald Freed, U.S. screenwriter, and Arnold M. Stone. Robert Altman. Richard Nixon (Philip Baker Hall)