Royal visit is a momentous occasion

I SEE Cormac Cahill’s point about preferring to “join with the protesters than the growing brigades of fawning sleveens” when Queen Elizabeth II visits (Letters, May 2).

Eight hundred years of history is indeed hard to forget. The plantations, the penal laws, the famine and the failure to implement the Home Rule Act were all major events.

There are, however, many items to balance these negatives — among them a democratic system of government, a legal system going back to the Magna Carta, a world language and literature and a serviceable physical infrastructure.

On top of that the people of this island voted for the Good Friday Agreement. This drew a line under the wrongs of history. Far from being an outing for what Cormac Cahill calls “fawning sleveens” this is a momentous visit. The visiting monarch was invited here by the elected head of this democratic republic acting on behalf of all of us. I hope the forthcoming visit goes well.

A Leavy

Sutton

Dublin 13