I HAVE no doubt that news of Osama bin Laden's death was greeted with groans in Garda HQ.

While all right-thinking people must applaud the US operation that took out the al-Qa'ida head, it has now provided gardai and the Government with a major security headache.

What's more, US President Barack Obama is likely to land here just 72 hours after Queen Elizabeth leaves.

So two of the biggest terror targets in the world will be on our soil, and I've no doubt sinister elements are sizing up our security.

Whatever of the talk of protests at the queen's visit, the death of bin Laden will lead to a greater terrorist threat, on Obama himself.

If it wasn't huge already, rest assured that a massive security operation is being prepared right now ahead of the president's visit in less than three weeks.

Grim

CIA director Leon Panetta has already issued a grim warning that al-Qa'ida will seek revenge for bin Laden's death, stating that "they would almost certainly respond".

And with Ireland as the next scheduled overseas visit on his itinerary, the focus is now shifting to our country, and what could occur here.

There is a real and present danger in the aftermath of bin Laden's death that al Qa'ida may choose the visit of the US President to this country to make good their threats.

I have no doubt that bin Laden and his terror chiefs, somewhere down the line, had this country in his sights for what they would see as our cooperation and collaboration with the US government in facilitating the movement of thousands of US soldiers at Shannon Airport to and from the theatres of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In Britain, we have in recent years seen ample evidence of how far the tentacles of al-Qa'ida have stretched.

The perpetrators of the London 7/7 bombings were all English, radicalised Muslims who were trained in al-Qa'ida camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

How easily could these people slip across and enter our country during the presidential visit?

But we don't need to import such elements.

Living in our very midst, in the leafy suburbs of Dundrum, is an al-Qa'ida terror suspect, Ibrahim Buisir, who is wanted by the US government and is on the UN Security terror list.

Even though he's denied any terrorist involvement, I have no doubt that all the US security services and our own security forces will be keeping a close watch on Buisir and any suspected terror associates of his in the lead up and during the presidential visit.

Why we give sanctuary and citizenship to this man is frankly beyond my comprehension. And he is the character we know about. How many others are here, or have been here? What is being done to monitor them?

I've seen media reports this week of Islamic terrors taking R&R in Ireland while on a break from "war" in the Middle East. If that's true, and I hope it's not, why are we informed of this threat in our midst?

Succour

Our Government in the future should not give sanctuary, refuge or succour to any person suspected or involved in any terrorist organisation, especially al-Qa'ida.

I have confidence in our gardai and our Defence Forces to provide the necessary security. They will be backed up US security forces, including the CIA, whose work led to the operation that took out bin Laden this week

If anything the huge operation for the queen days before will ensure that our security services have everything they need in place for the Obama visit.

So here's to a safe visit, that we can all enjoy.

But I'll still be breathing a sigh of relief when I see Air Force One leave the runway at Dublin Airport.

A normal wife? Good luck, Kate

AFTER all the glitz and the glamour, the pageantry and pomp, William and Kate are coming back to earth with a bang, or so it seems.

Instead of the jet-setting lifestyle some might expect, Princess Catherine says that she wants to enjoy life as an ordinary RAF wife, while her husband is being sent away on work -- a two-month tour in the Falkland Islands.

So one will be slumming it with the plebs for a while.

The princess has told pals she just wants to be an ordinary housewife in her rented farmhouse that she shares in north Wales with her new husband.

It dispels the notion of the prince and princess fantasy that we all love to cling to and believe in.

But after the umpteenth spat over emptying the dishwasher I wonder will a worldwide royal tour seem a little more attractive?

Hooray...Metro North is dead and buried

FINALLY Metro North has been exposed for the white elephant that it is.

The news that the underground railway planned from the city centre to Dublin Airport has been shelved is welcome and overdue.

This almighty folly was first proposed during the reign of King Bertie and, like his proposal for a national soccer stadium, it has bitten the dust.

Metro North was, if anything, even more ill-advised than the ludicrous Bertie Bowl.

The pie-in-the-sky project was going to cost hard-pressed taxpayers an astronomical €2.5bn -- expensive even by the fantasy finance levels of the Celtic Tiger.

Mooted

Now it appears we are going to settle for a far more realistic and sensible project, a link from the Dart to the airport at a cost of €300m.

Did it take millions in consultancy fees and huge reports to arrive at this? No, it was first mooted back in 1991. If it's perfectly good enough now, why the hell have we spent five years preparing to dig up north Dublin for a train line? And how much has this soon-to-be-aborted project cost to date?

Whatever the answer, the Dart plan shows we are at last, as a country, sobering up. We still have to pay the tab for the reckless profligacy of the Celtic Tiger years, but at last we seem to be returning to earth.

Nonetheless, wait for the delays to hit this project. Leaves on the track, anyone?

- Gerry O'Carroll