Queen is welcome but she must apologise

IN response to JJ McGrath (Letters, June 29), I do not object to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth visiting Ireland. In fact I believe that to normalise relations between these two neighbours, it is imperative that she visits.

And I am not digging up the past. Up until 1949 Ireland remained within a commonwealth headed by Queen Elizabeth’s father. And this will be the first visit by a British monarch since our independence from British rule, a first visit by a monarch whose ancestors conquered and exploited this country.

Though time has passed and we are an independent state now, the queen nevertheless must apologise for all her ancestors’ acts of tyranny.

Mr McGrath says Queen Victoria, like her great-great granddaughter, is nothing more than a figurehead, but the fact is she is responsible ultimately for all actions taken by the forces who act in the name of the crown.

The British armed forces are referred to as the forces of the crown for good reason – the queen is the commander-in-chief. Indeed Queen Elizabeth’s son is the colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment that murdered 14 innocent civilians in Derry in 1972. While the position is ceremonial, he is kept informed of all the regiment’s actions.

Mr McGrath says such resentment over a visit by the queen defies logic. What resentment? I am simply voicing an opinion I believe to be shared by the majority of people here ... that Queen Elizabeth should be aware of her obligations to the Irish people, former subjects of the crown.

Seamus Kearney

Lismire

Co Cork