Queen’s Ireland visit aims to heal old wounds
Security is on high alert across Ireland as the country prepares for its first-ever visit from the Queen. Carl Dinnen says the success of the trip is crucial for both Ireland and the UK.
From the moment her elegantly-shod foot steps onto the tarmac at Casement Aerodrome the Queen’s every move will be fizzing with historical significance.
Sir Roger Casement, after whom the air base is named, was a former British diplomat executed for treason after he tried to bring the Germans onside with the Irish rebels in 1916.
The Queen will then lay a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance. It is normal for a Head of State to mark the foundation of the Irish State in this way. But, of course, the narrative of this State’s foundation is fundamentally about a struggle against the British, arguably it is an anti-British story.
The Garden commemorates those who died fighting for Irish freedom, many of them killed by the armed forces who are now headed by, yes, the Queen.
On Wednesday she’ll visit Croke Park, where British forces massacred 14 civilians when they fired indiscriminately into the crowd. After that the State dinner will be held in Dublin Castle. For 800 years it was the seat of British rule in Ireland – the day the British handed over the keys was when many Irish people finally believed they’d won independence.
Declaration of normality
So this visit is a remarkable one, an aggressive declaration of normality, of insistent neighbourliness.
The forces who are opposed to any kind of normality in that relationship will be in play. Republican Sinn Fein and Eirigi – the socialist republican group – will stage demonstrations.
But support for the Queen’s visit is pretty high (a recent poll found 77 per cent in favour). The bigger threat is the security one, dissident republicans would love to make a show of defiance, or something worse. Security is tight here.
Finally, there is a personal aspect to all this. The Queen is at last visiting the country in whose name her cousin, Lord Mountbatten, was murdered by the Provisional IRA in 1979. The leader of the Provisional movement, Gerry Adams, has moderated his opposition to the visit this week. Even daring to hope that the visit of “Her Majesty” (his words) improves the relationship between the people of Britain and Ireland.
The relationship between the UK and its closest neighbour – once its oldest colony – has healed. This week is the final proof of that.