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SF meeting Queen a giant leap forward
Co-operation Ireland, a charitable organisation involved in reconciliation activities on both sides of the border, has among its patrons both President Michael D Higgins and Queen Elizabeth II.
It is hosting an event next Wednesday for the Queen and the President to celebrate the arts and culture across the island during the Queen’s visit to Northern Ireland. First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have also been invited.Asked recently in a radio interview during the Sinn Féin ard fheis about whether he would be willing to meet the Queen during her forthcoming visit to Northern Ireland, Mr McGuinness was non-committal. He said that he had to wait on the decision of the party’s new Árd Comhairle, but he left little doubt that he would personally like to do so.
“I recognise that there are one million people on this island who are British and let me state here and now that as a proud Irish republican I not only recognise the unionist and British identity, I respect it,” Mr McGuinness told the party gathering that morning. “People who think that a new Ireland, a united Ireland can be built without unionist participation, involvement and leadership are deluded.
“The war is over and we are in the process of building a new Republic,” he added. As Deputy First Minister he recognises that he has a duty to represent all of the people of Northern Ireland — unionists and nationalists — not just those people who voted for him.
As such it is only right and fitting that he should meet and greet the Queen during her forthcoming visit. The new Sinn Féin Ard Comhairle duly authorised such a meeting yesterday.
This is a magnificent opportunity for Sinn Féin to demonstrate the respect that Mr McGuinness professes for all the people of Northern Ireland. Nobody is suggesting that Sinn Féin should become royalists, but this is an opportunity to demonstrate that it has abandoned its neo-fascist past and is adopting a true republicanism by respecting the differing aspirations of those in their midst.
Small gestures can have enormous significance. People in Britain and Ireland were greatly moved in 2006 by the polite way in which the English rugby team and their supporters were allowed to sing God Save the Queen without a murmur of dissent in Croke Park. It was a small gesture, but it sent a powerful message.
That message was reinforced by the warm and friendly way in which Queen Elizabeth was welcomed to this country last year.
“We’ve gone past the stage where we see these kinds of events as big, momentous occasions,” Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore told reporters in Dublin yesterday.
Of course, this is the way it should be. They have not yet fully crossed that bridge in Northern Ireland. Even though next Wednesday’s meeting will only be a small step, it could be a giant leap forward in the right direction.
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