Royal News Blog

Note: This article is from the Guardian.

This article titled “Queen’s visit to Ireland could mark the start of a new era, says Gerry Adams” was written by Henry McDonald, Ireland editor, for The Observer on Saturday 14th May 2011 23.19 UTC

Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Féin, has said that the Queen’s visit to Ireland could mark moves towards a new and better relationship between the country and Britain.

His remarks come as an unprecedented security operation gets under way in the Republic to protect the Queen from terrorist attacks or street disorder. The public will be kept back from the royal entourage as it passes along Dublin’s quays, north of the river Liffey and the city’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street.

Adams, the Sinn Féin president, said the three-day royal tour could provide “a unique opportunity” for mutual respect and equality on both sides of the Irish Sea.

His comments, in a column for the Irish Examiner, mark a change in his attitude to the historic visit. He said he had nothing against the Queen but he was opposed to the idea of monarchies in principle. He hoped the visit would hasten the day when a new and better relationship could be formed, but that would depend on what the Queen said.

Adams maintained that the visit was troubling for many people and found suggestions that the state visit was an indication that Irish people had matured insulting and patronising. In March, the Sinn Féin president had described the visit as premature.

His comments came as security forces on both sides of the border began a clampdown on republican dissidents who have vowed to disrupt the visit. In Northern Ireland, police arrested a man and a woman in Co Armagh in connection with dissident republican activity. Detectives from the PSNI’s serious crime branch held a man of 25 in Lurgan and a woman of 26 in Armagh. Both are being questioned under the Terrorism Act.

Meanwhile, former IRA hunger striker and Old Bailey bomber Marian Price is still being quizzed about dissident republican actions by the PSNI. She was arrested at her west Belfast home on Friday.

Price was seen at Easter standing beside a masked Real IRA man at a dissident republican commemoration in Derry. She has been a bitter critic of Adams’s and Sinn Féin’s peace strategy, regarding their stance as a sell-out of traditional republican principles.

South of the border the Garda Síochána is continuing preparations for the arrival of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. More than 30 streets in central Dublin will have parking restrictions imposed, and these will remain in place all week. Up to 5,000 gardaí will be deployed on security duties to protect the royal couple. The force also has a number of water cannon in reserve, borrowed from the PSNI.

Barriers will remain in place throughout the royal visit and will keep the public away from the royal party, which will travel through the city in bulletproof cars.

Thousands of manholes covers and lamp-posts along the route through Dublin have already been checked and sealed as part of the security operation. Traffic restrictions on some routes through the city will begin on Monday.

Senior Garda sources, meanwhile, have expressed concern over the continuing ability of dissident republicans to acquire sophisticated new arms from sources abroad. They point to the seizure of a new type of mortar rocket launcher at Dublin airport at Christmas. The weapon is more accurate and has a greater range than launchers used in previous attacks on police stations in Northern Ireland.

In a series of follow-up operations, the Garda has also uncovered a new type of Russian explosive which the Real IRA is believed to have smuggled into the Republic within the past two years.

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This article titled “Queen set for first Republic of Ireland visit” was written by Stephen Bates and Henry McDonald, for The Guardian on Friday 13th May 2011 17.36 UTC

The Queen has visited 129 countries in the course of the second longest reign in British history, from Iceland to Indonesia, but never has she ever set foot in the 130th: Britain’s nearest neighbour, the Republic of Ireland.

Her four-day visit from Tuesday will be the first by a British monarch since her grandfather, George V, was greeted by cheering crowds in Dublin almost 100 years ago in the boiling hot July of 1911, and the Irish government has been playing down the resonances that many still feel.

However, demonstrations are expected and the government has instituted a huge security operation, targeted dissident republicans and borrowed water cannon from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Eamon Gilmore, the tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and foreign minister, told the Guardian: “It is very historic and symbolic that the Queen is coming, but really there should be a lot of surprise that it hasn’t happened before.

“She is the head of state of a neighbouring country and state visits are very much part of what we do. She will get a very warm welcome. Her visit will herald a much more normal relationship between Ireland and the UK.”

Gilmore, who in his youth was a member of Official Sinn Féin, the non-violent wing of the republican movement that became the Workers’ party, says he will greet her on arrival, but not bow. Asked if he ever thought he would be welcoming the Queen to Ireland, he replies: “I think it is a question of an old book opening a new chapter … She is going to be welcomed by the overwhelming majority. Those who are opposed do not represent a significant slice of opinion.”

The visit – which will be accompanied for part of the time by David Cameron and William Hague, the foreign secretary – will carry the panoply of a state occasion: a formal dinner, a visit to the Dáil and meetings with the president, Mary McAleese, and taoiseach, Enda Kenny, but also includes a trip to the national horse stud in Kildare and the English market in Cork.

It ends three days before the arrival of Barack Obama, who will be stopping over for 24 hours to visit his Irish family roots in Moneygall, County Offaly, on his way to a state visit to Britain.

But the Queen’s visit is laden with reminders of a fraught and violent past century. She will lay a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin, built to honour those killed fighting for Irish freedom, from the 1798 rebellion of the United Irishmen to the Easter Rising and the Irish war of independence of 1919-21.

And, most resonant of all, she has been invited to Croke Park, where British auxiliary troops fired on a crowd at a gaelic football match in November 1920, killing 14, in savage reprisal for the IRA’s assassination of undercover agents in Dublin earlier that morning. It is not so very long since no Briton could have set foot there, let alone a British monarch.

Eirígí, the Irish republican socialist movement, has pointed out that the Queen will arrive on the 37th anniversary of Ulster Volunteer Force bombings in Dublin. Anniversaries and historic wrongs remain important. Brian Leeson, the Eirígí spokesman, said: “For as long as the British occupation of the six counties continues the prospect of a British head of state attending a ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance is as insulting as it is provocative. The entire spectacle is nothing short of disgusting.”

Officials expect the visit to produce large crowds and worldwide attention. About 5,000 Garda Síochána officers will be on duty. Senior sources in the Garda have criticised the Irish government’s decision to publish the itinerary in advance, believing it has given dissidents time to organise demonstrations. Republican Sinn Féin, linked to the terror group the Continuity IRA, plans protests throughout the visit.

The biggest confrontation may come at the Garden of Remembrance. One security source said: “The demonstrators will only be 300 to 400 yards away. This is the biggest test. The force has to repel any attempt to break through and this is where they will try their damndest.”

The special branch has rounded up dissident ringleaders and made arrests.

The government – and the Irish tourist board – hope that the visits by the Queen and Obama will lift spirits after months of political turmoil and financial crisis, and boost tourism from Britain and the US. Alex Connolly, Failte Ireland’s spokesman, said: “The Queen’s visit brings us exposure money can’t buy.”

At the end of his visit to Dublin in 1911, George V was surprised by the warmth of the welcome he had received – a “natural impulse of goodwill and true Irish welcome we shall never forget”.

He declared: “Looking forward as we do to coming amongst our Irish people again and at no distant date … we can now only say that our best wishes will ever be for the increased prosperity of your ancient capital and for the contentment and happiness of our Irish people.” He could never have realised “no distant date” would take another century.

Royal visits

Royal visits to their Irish realm were not uncommon in the late 19th and early 20th century, despite rising political tensions over home rule. After Edward VII’s visit in 1903, the nationalist Cork Examiner declared: “No sovereign visiting our shores ever met with anything like the hearty goodwill, the honest, unaffected welcome extended by the people of all classes. This fortnight has made history … provided materials for nation building.”

When George V paid what would be the last official visit in 1911, the king noted that he and Queen Mary had received a reception “as warm-hearted and enthusiastic as any that he has ever received.”

Dublin Corporation’s nationalist members voted to play no part, but the king was greeted by thousands of spectators, lining the eight miles from Kingstown – now Dun Laoghaire – to the city centre and received loyal addresses from 130 organisations. Lord Mayor John Farrell told the Manchester Guardian that the king would receive a heartier reception in Dublin than he would get in London as “the Irish people were peculiarly suited by temperament to express a welcome when they had it in their hearts.”

Resorting to quoting his cabbie, the paper’s correspondent reported: “My jarvey told me with the air of one who had known him from the cradle that King George was a very decent fellow and he went on to assure me that the Irish people, coming as they did from very decent stock themselves, would give him the welcome that he deserved.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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Note: This article is from the Guardian.

This article titled “No bows or curtsies when the Queen pays historic visit to Ireland” was written by Nicholas Watt, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 12th May 2011 23.21 UTC

When the Queen becomes the first British monarch in 100 years to visit Dublin next Tuesday she will receive a typically warm Irish welcome.

But even before she disembarks from her plane at the Baldonnel military airbase the Queen will have her first taste of the troubled history of Anglo-Irish relations.

From her plane the Queen will see that the base’s formal title is the Casement Aerodrome. It was named after Sir Roger Casement, a member of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy who turned into an Irish nationalist hero after he was hanged for treason at Pentonville Prison in London a few months after the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. Casement, who once served as British consul-general in Rio de Janeiro, had negotiated with Germany to ship arms to Irish Republicans during the first world war. He famously returned to Ireland on a submarine.

No doubt Casement’s treason will not be mentioned when the Queen is formally welcomed at the airport by Eamon Gilmore, the deputy prime minister (Tánaiste). But Gilmore will not be bowing to the Queen. Irish republicans tend not to bow or curtsy to a British monarch.

The Queen is likely to be supremely relaxed by the absence of bows and curtsies. The atmosphere will be wholly different to the time when Paul Keating, the former Australian prime minister, committed lese-majesty by placing his arm round the Queen. On visits down under she is Queen of Australia.

During her four-day visit to the Irish Republic the Queen will be a foreign head of state, enjoying the same status as Barack Obama who will visit the following week. But the Queen’s visit will be laden with symbolism as the granddaughter of King George V, the last British monarch to visit Dublin in 1911, sets the seal on the full normalisation of Anglo-Irish relations after a political settlement was finally reached in Northern Ireland.

As I wrote in a recent blog the visit has been carefully balanced to reflect the complexity of relations between the two islands.

The Queen will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony on the first day of her visit at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin that commemorates the Irish republicans who tried to overthrow George V’s rule over Ireland in the Easter Rising. The visit to the shrine of Irish nationalism will be balanced on Wednesday when the Queen takes part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Irish War Memorial Garden, Islandbridge, in Dublin. This commemorates Irish soldiers who died in British or allied uniforms during the first and second world wars.

David Cameron will show this is no ordinary state visit when he joins the Queen in Dublin on Wednesday. William Hague will follow precedent by accompanying the Queen for the whole visit. But the prime minister will show this is one of the most special state visits of the Queen’s reign when he attends a banquet at Dublin Castle, the former seat of British rule, where she will deliver her only speech of the visit. This has been pored over in the Foreign Office and Downing Street.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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