Irish State Coach Irish State Coach 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 as a speculative venture in 1851 by John Hutton & Sons of Dublin, who held a Royal Warrant as coachbuilders to Queen Victoria. Exhibited at the 1853 Great Industrial Exhibition, it was admired by the Queen, purchased and delivered to the Royal Mews. From
Elizabeth R: A Year in the Life of the Queen also depicted with her mother, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on Derby Day at Epsom in the film. The film mostly received positive reviews, including those from the Queen herself. The Queen organized a party for the crew at Buckingham Palace after watching the film before its public broadcast. It gained the largest audience for a documentary in the history of British television and was watched by more than half of the British population in 1992. The film won an award. Robert Hardman of "the Spectator" argued that Antony Jay, the script writer, redefined the function of the British Monarch