Now is not the time for a royal visit

THE much-anticipated and hyped state visit to the Republic of Ireland by Queen Elizabeth II, due to take place before the end of President McAleese’s term of office in 2011, drew a curious comment from the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micháel Martin recently.

Mr Martin said that it seemed odd to him that “the head of state of our nearest neighbour hasn’t been here yet”. I find it odd that this state would issue an invitation to the commander-in-chief of the British armed forces whose record in Ireland needs no re-telling. The symbolism of such a visit would be used to undermine Irish political sovereignty.

Although this will not be the first time Queen Elizabeth II has visited Ireland (she has frequently visited her colonial possession in British-occupied Ireland), this will be the first official state visit to southern Ireland by a reigning British monarch since independence in 1922. The proposed royal visit is being portrayed as part of a normalisation process between two friendly states and benefiting the peace process. It is my view that a royal visit at this time has the potential to be a polarising and divisive event.

Obviously the conclusions reached by Lord Saville in his Report, which took 12 years to complete, on the Bloody Sunday massacre when members of Her Majesty’s armed forces indiscriminately murdered 14 innocent civilians in Derry in 1972, hasn’t impacted fully on Mr Martin.

Her Majesty’s armed forces have killed 370 people in Ireland since 1969 and have colluded with paramilitaries “loyal to the Crown” to kill a further 1109.

In November 2006, a report issued by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice spoke of “acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by British security forces”. For the Irish government to issue an invitation to the British head of state to visit here would be to ignore a report issued by its own parliament.

Tom Cooper

Knocklyon

Dublin 16