The Crown and the shamrock

AS the first reigning British Monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland, the Queen’s state visit was always going to be rich with historical symbolism.

Yesterday’s visit to the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin was particularly poignant. The garden remembers those who perished in the cause of Irish independence and its struggle against Britain.

As the British and Irish anthems sounded, it will have been impossible for Her Majesty not to reflect on how this bloodshed claimed the life of her own cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, at the height of the Troubles.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

That the Queen was even able to undertake such a wreath-laying ceremony, made even more profound because of the occasion’s simplicity, is a defining legacy of a prolonged peace process which has brought the Crown and the shamrock closer together.

This tribute would have been unthinkable at the height of the Troubles, or even before David Cameron’s apology that concluded Lord Saville’s report into Bloody Sunday.

While history has necessitated a massive security operation, this visit is very much looking to the future, with 81 per cent of Irish people happy to welcome the Royal party – in spite of Dublin being in a state of lock-down with empty streets.

For, apart from the familiar slate-grey skies that accompanied the Queen, and the enduring love of horse racing that she shares with the Irish people, there is much that links the United Kingdom and the Emerald Isle.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As well as a shared border and language, trade links make it even more important that there is a special relationship between the London and Dublin governments, plus the devolved administration at Stormont.

It is why the Treasury underwrote £7bn in loans when Ireland’s banking industry needed rescuing from the abyss – a failure to do so would have caused more than just ripples on this side of the Irish Sea.

As such, the Queen’s official tour to the one country that she has been unable to visit for political reasons for 60 years, and one so close to Britain, is a potentially defining moment in Anglo-Irish relations that should be celebrated.