Royal visit helps to banish the darkness of ignorance

QUEEN Elizabeth’s visit has been an important and vital step forward, but not before time.

The visit should mark the beginning of an annual visit to improve British-Irish relations as much as possible and show terrorists and those who want to live in the past that society is most definitely moving on. Hardliners wrongly believe that being “hard” is a way of achieving their aspiration of a united Ireland.

People are so sick of bigotry, hate, and sectarianism that the Queen’s visit has been received as a welcome breath of fresh air from those who love their warring history books.

We have listened far too long to those who augment division and relish it for their own cynical and violent ends. The British establishment have trusted us with the security of their head of state in a time where security is a major concern, which should be seen as the strongest example of British commitment to peace and prosperity. The general public have been deeply critical and justifiably so that such a visit has taken so long to achieve and shows us that we can be cowardly at times and capitulate to the echoes of the past, who have kept their contempt alive by an abstract hatred based on revolutionary times long since gone.

Certainly, we should hope that this visit would not be the last and by doing so shine the light in a place where great darkness and ignorance formerly existed.

Maurice Fitzgerald

Shanbally

Co Cork