The Queen arrives in Ireland tomorrow Tuesday May 17, for its first state visit by a reigning British monarch since 1911. But how will she be received there? This perspective was written by Martyn McLaughlin in yesterday’s “Scotand on Sunday”
It promises to be a state visit like no other, where every ceremony will be rich in meaning and emotion, and each word and gesture inviting of scrutiny and reflection. When the Queen begins her trip to Ireland this week, she need not even disembark from her plane to be made aware of the political, religious, and historical sensitivities surrounding the occasion.
On Tuesday morning, her aircraft will touch down on the tarmacadam of Baldonnel military airbase. To the south-west of Dublin, the home of the Irish Air Corps may appear anonymous at first glance, but its alternative name – the Casement aerodrome – tells a different story.
The facility is named after Sir Roger Casement, a member of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy and former British consul-general in Rio de Janeiro. He became an Irish nationalist hero after holding negotiations with Germany to ship arms to Irish Republicans during the First World War, famously returning to Ireland on a submarine.
His switch of allegiance, however, saw him hung for treason at Pentonville Prison only a few months after the 1916 Easter Rising.
It is, perhaps, unlikely that the Queen’s welcoming party – set to include Tánaiste (deputy premier) Eamon Gilmore – would be so crass as to mention Casement’s name, but the fact that such an awkward history will rear its head before she has even set foot on Irish soil hints at the inherent complexities of her engagement.
Amid questions about the timing of the event, how the Queen will refer to Britain’s relationship with its close neighbour, and growing speculation as to the nature of the reception she will receive from the Irish public, few disagree about the special nature of the state visit.
It is imbued with significance and, indeed, poignancy, compared with the empty pomp and circumstance routinely associated with the myriad foreign excursions made by members of the Royal Family.
“The word historic is being used justifiably for this visit,” reflects Diarmaid Ferriter, professor of modern Irish history at University College Dublin. “It is the last piece of a jigsaw that has been slowly put together over the last 10 or 15 years.”
Memories in Ireland are long. The Queen’s visit will be the first by a British monarch since King George V crossed the Irish Sea. That occasion, in the summer of 1911, came before a bloody uprising and a two-year war which would eventually bring about Irish independence in 1921.
Almost 60 years after her 1953 coronation, and a century on from her grandfather’s trip, few people would be so bold as to predict quite how Elizabeth II will be met by Ireland.
Ominous episodes in history, such as the burning of the British embassy in Dublin’s Merrion Square following the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972, highlight the tempestuous feelings towards the Crown which were prevalent throughout much of the 20th century.
More at:
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/comment/Will-Ireland-welcome-the-Queen.6768346.jp
See also other reports this site and in Articles section review by Charles Moore of “Harp and Crown”