Forget the past and let’s welcome the queen

THE anti-British rhetoric coming from some quarters in this country to Queen Elizabeth’s visit is hard evidence that there are those who are determined to live in the blood-drenched past.

As long as we listen to those people we are never going to get beyond the fundamentalist dogma that believes there is only one way and one view about the matters. The ordinary people in this country are nowhere near the conditioned and forged attitudes of hard-line republicans/nationalists, who have lived in their history books for far too long and refuse to let go of politics that will never get them anywhere. Our bigots are there to create division and do a good job because some people are dumb enough to listen to voices of the past. A united Ireland has not come about because unionists do not want to be coerced into it by terrorism, and as long as terror remains a factor it is hard to see how republicans/nationalists will very get their way in that regard.

The queen’s state visit should herald a new era and break the ice that has been frozen for too long. Terrorism has been the biggest problem on these islands, which has created very high and unnatural levels of distrust, and killed many people in the process. It is time to forget about the bigot and think about humanity for change.

Maurice Fitzgerald

Shanbally

Co Cork