Queen’s Irish visit is premature

AT a recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the 1916-1921 Club a motion was unanimously passed protesting at the coming planned State visit of Queen Elizabeth.

This club was founded in the 1940s by veterans of the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence to honour and remember those who died for Irish freedom and all those who worked for its achievement. Some of our founder members had immediate relatives executed during the War of Independence. The British government had no legitimate authority to execute young Irishmen after the Irish people had voted by a big majority in the 1918 general election for an independent parliament to legislate for Ireland. In 1918-1921 English rule in Ireland was illegal and all executions, murders, imprisonments, burnings of houses and other heinous acts carried out by British troops in Ireland were unlawful. The Irish people who suffered never received an apology from any British government or monarch for these evil crimes.

The members of this club think that the queen’s State visit is premature. The Queen of England is head of the British forces who still occupy our six north-easterly counties.