Queen deserves our apologies and thanks

I WAS quite astonished to read not one but three letters protesting the queen’s visit in your paper on March 8.

Of course Des Dalton of Republican Sinn Féin will oppose it, but where was he when the IRA were breaking the bones of and murdering their political opponents? I would suggest Mr Dalton and his Sinn Féin movement owes an apology to Her Majesty, on behalf of the IRA, for the carnage that body has inflicted both on her family, and on Britain over a period of 30 years.

Also, I fear Kevin Finn’s loyalty is displaced. Does he not realise we have done far more harm to ourselves, under our own elected leaders, than the British ever managed to inflict? Does he not realise that since independence, hundreds of thousands of our people have been forced to emigrate, to find a home in Britain, under Her Majesty’s government? And are doing so even now. Far from protesting Her Majesty’s visit, I would suggest Mr Finn write a “thank you” letter. Given our present circumstances, he might even attach a postscript, begging her to take us back.