PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins will meet the United Kingdom’s King Charles  tonight before becoming the first Irish head of state to attend a coronation.

Higgins and his wife Sabina will be guests at a reception at Buckingham Palace on the eve of the coronation ceremony in London.

It will be the ninth occasion the two heads of state have met and continues a long-standing friendship between the two.

Higgins and his wife will then attend the coronation tomorrow at Westminster Abbey. 

The king and Michael D Higgins have met on numerous occasions PA / John Stillwell PA / John Stillwell / John Stillwell

To mark the event, the president and his wife requested the Tree Council of Ireland to plant a native Irish oak tree in the woodland forest of Aurora in Co Wicklow.

The gesture was to acknowledge the King’s commitment to environmental sustainability.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is also expected to attend the coronation.

Political leaders from Northern Ireland have also been invited.

Among those who will attend is Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill in another demonstration of the markedly improved relations between the republican movement and the royal family since the peace process.