Getting shut out of the royal visit

THE Tánaiste has remarked in the Irish Examiner (May 18) that he “would have liked to have seen more well-wishers for the queen’s visit”. Logically we can assume a number of reasons why people weren’t present.

Historically, people have shown a clear interest in survival, and disassociating themselves with the single largest security operation in the history of the nation would undoubtedly go a long way towards ensuring this basic need to survive.

So, too, could be the simple fact that Mr Gilmore, as a member of the government, facilitated the severe curtailment of methods of transportation into and out of Dublin for the purposes of keeping the queen safe from threatened attacks.