Irish Examiner view: The price we pay for being always on

Blanket coverage of queen's death to continue ahead of Monday's funeral

Liz Truss (left) greets Sinn Féin Vice president Michelle O'Neill with Taoiseach Micheál Martin (right) at a Service of Reflection for Queen Elizabeth II at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

To a significant number of Irish people, the wall-to-wall coverage of the and its continuation over this weekend, has more than a sense of the surreal given that we are on our own journey through our decade of centenaries underlined most recently, less than a month ago, by the commemorative ceremonies at Béal na Bláth.

To some extent this masks the, often unspoken, fascination many of us have with royalty. And not just us. The French, too, have set aside their own republican instincts and distrust of perfidious Albion to speak and act warmly towards monarchist sympathisers across La Manche.