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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Queen Elizabeth announces end to war between Irish and British ----historic visit brings end to 800-year conflict

Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 08:18 AM
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Dublin: The sheer shock of Queen Elizabeth speaking Gaelic during her remarks at a state dinner in her honor was bad enough.

Then there was the shot of her standing to attention for the Irish national anthem, and then of her laying a wreath on the remembrance plot for IRA heroes.

This is all too much to bear.

Do I wake or dream?

Has someone invented a Bizzaro world, you know that planet that Superman lived on before he came down to earth where everything was the direct opposite of what it was supposed to be?

What has happened here this week in Ireland has been little short of extraordinary.

Basically, the British have made the decision to bury the hatchet.


That was not a decision taken lightly, the British never do that.

But when they move they do it in style

After 800 years or so of intermittent warfare of the worst kind, the emissary in the shape of the queen has come to announce terms.

Those terms are splashed across every front page of the Irish media today.

'What were once hopes for the future have now come to pass' says The Irish Times headline, a direct quote from the queen.

The future has arrived in the new era for the Irish and British peoples.

There will be no more war.

Sure there will be crazies who want to keep shooting like those Japanese soldiers after World War 2 who never got the meessage until years later that hostilities had ceased.

They sail in puddles of the past as Patrick Kavanagh has written.

Another phrase from the queen jumps out 'being able to bow to the past, but not being bound by it'

That is what Ireland and Britain must do now.

The unionists in Northern Ireland must see the message from both the Irish leaders and the Queen on behalf of the British this week that they want no more war.

The Dissident IRA must see it too.

James Joyce once wrote that history is a nightmare from which the Irish are trying to awaken.

I think we all just woke up.

This queen's visit is so successful, so full of substance that it threatens to completely overshadow Obama's visit here on Monday.

Who would have thunk that?

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READ MORE: 

Horse rears up on Queen in National Stud 

Irish Americans welcome Queen's historic visit to Ireland

The Queen turns down a free pint of Guinness - VIDEO & PHOTOS

Security code red as Queen visits British Army massacre site

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93 comments

Next Previous Page 2 of 7 pages
DanOLoingsigh | May 23, 2011, 09:27 AM EDT
Seano – I think you just outed yourself in your last post ‘justifying’ Brighton bombing, in which five people were killed.

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seanomelbourne | May 22, 2011, 08:06 PM EDT
You love quoting Right wing Irish politicians again you have exposed your pro unionist bent(which you try to hide). I have outed you once before for your anti Irish ranting be man enough to say what you stand for.BTW Fitzgerald and his Fine Gael mates have an ingrained hate of Irish nationalism and a pro british bent,well that probably suits you convenient simple politics. To put the record straight the IRA unfortunately missed Thatcher.

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DanOLoingsigh | May 22, 2011, 04:21 AM EDT
maireadinmelb – You really need to get out of the sun…Bobby Sands chose his own way of dying. The MPs who were actually murdered include Airey Neave MP for Abingdon, 1979, Robert Bradford MP for Belfast South 1981, and Ian Gow, MP for Eastbourne 1990; these men were murdered by your anti-democratic republican friends. Then Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald said at the time of Bradford’s murder ‘The IRA has once again shown its utter contempt for human life and for the democratic process which it has recently sought to distort for its own ends. Its true attitude to democracy and freedom was summed up in a recent statement of an IRA spokesman who, when asked about the wishes of the people in this part of the country (The North) concerning an aspect of reunification, replied, “We call the shots. We don't really give a damn what they want”. Do you still seem to hold to that IRA view; it seems to chime with your posts?

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DanOLoingsigh | May 22, 2011, 04:20 AM EDT
Seano – You need not ‘keep’ an article, you can just ‘Google’ the key elements of the story i.e. , there you can view the article, Title ‘IRA bombing victim speaks out against Congressman Peter King’, and your shameful justification, which I will repeat ‘Parker is obviously a unionist sympathizer fraternizing with the enemy in a military establishment.’ Do your own words not demonstrate that you are an apologist for murders that fit with your anti-democratic republican agenda? Straw-clutching not required, I reckon.

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maireadinmelb | May 22, 2011, 02:28 AM EDT
MarthaAnne - When she acknowledges the sacrifice of those who were murdered by her men under her leadership, maybe there will be some respect, ie the Member of her own parliament who was allowed to starve to death.....

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seanomelbourne | May 22, 2011, 01:04 AM EDT
As I have not kept the article I cannot respond on a one liner,I would like you to reprint the line where I Justified the london bombing. You are clutching at straws Dan.

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DanOLoingsigh | May 21, 2011, 08:11 PM EDT
Seano – the article on 8 Jan 2011, was titled ‘IRA bombing victim speaks out against Congressman Peter King’, about a London bombing and a line in it said "I have no problem with his support for a unified Ireland." says Parker, Your response posted on Jan 08, 2011, 06:17 PM EST ‘Parker is obviously a unionist sympathizer fraternizing with the enemy in a military establishment.’ That sounds like justification for and condoning of murder to me, or perhaps you can explain what else it means?

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seanomelbourne | May 21, 2011, 07:43 PM EDT
Where have I condoned any murders and name any lawyer who represented unionists that were killed by nationalist. What london murders have I condoned,your clutching at straws and changing tack as you loose your argument.

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MarthaAnne | May 21, 2011, 10:26 AM EDT
It was deeply moving when she stood with the President in the Garden of Remembrance, bowed her head out of RESPECT and REGARD for the dead men of the Easter rising and also heard the orders given and commemoration for them read in Irish. The language her family had tried to make extinct! (That was the big one for me, her listening to Irish spoken and also her bow to those who had been executed by her grandfather.) She seemed to want to show her deep respect for those who died, and for the Irish people and all that they have suffered at the hands of the Crown, including her own grandfather. I have only the deepest respect for her. She is a person of character.

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barneyjo | May 21, 2011, 07:55 AM EDT
@daithi - I think you should keep a better eye on press coverage coming out of Northern Ireland. Word is that an enquiry into the murders of both Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson are in the offing. And the reason I havent posted about it, or for that matter the Omagh Bomb or anything else is that is the benefit of NOT allowing myself to be a prisoner of history. When you stand outside knocking your head off a brick wall trying to change things the only thing happens is that your head hurts; much better then to change things from within. IF the British Establishment is intent on righting wrongs in relation to its involvement in Ireland, then that will become pretty clear quite quickly. If it becomes apparent that the committment shown is only QUALIFIED, then that will prompt further revision of my views. Until then, I do not wish to see the views and attitudes of the entire Irish diaspora be guided by the lowest common denominator. In the eyes of the world, the British State has declared that it wishes to reach a better place in its relationship with the Republic of Ireland. As such Ireland has to hold Britain to that committment by matching it and indeed if possible, by surpassing it, so that in the event that the relationship falls over, then there will be no doubt where the blame for that lies!!

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citizen69 | May 21, 2011, 06:25 AM EDT
@ancavker: Yes there are Americans like yourself who are educated about Ireland's very complex history but there are many more who know little apart from what they read on websites like this that are very much biased towards the politics of Sinn Fein republicanism. The headline on this page alone shows proof of that. A lot of Irish Americans' (many of whom have never been out of their own country) knowledge of Ireland is skewed by half-truths, propaganda & bias towards Britain. They perhaps believe that most people in Ireland hold the views of hard-line Republicanism... which they don't. The people of Ireland have overwhelmingly decided that the future of Northern Ireland should be decided peacefully by the people of the North themselves. What gives those not born here the right to demand different just because they have an Irish surname in their family tree?

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DanOLoingsigh | May 21, 2011, 04:16 AM EDT
Seano – As I said in my last post, I tend to restrict my posts to things I know something about…I did not demean anybody, but imo, people who took a high profile in the troubles were more likely to attract attention from the other side…that’s how things were. Armchair republicans seem to have the strange notion that it was OK to kill and maim anyone they regard as a ‘legitimate target’, but wanted ‘protected status’ for others. Condoning any murder is shameful, so your condoning of some London murders as the deaths of ‘unionist sympathizers fraternizing with the enemy’ is shameful…

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seanomelbourne | May 20, 2011, 08:41 PM EDT
R.Nelson and P Finucane were murdered by unionist agents of the crown They protected the rights of nationalist from kangaroo courts. To demean the work of Nelson and Finucane is reprehensible.BTW name lawyers who represented unionist terrorist who were murdered by nationalist.Ah!! Dan it's sometimes easy to see through the looking glass.Condoning by inference the above murders is shameful.

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DanOLoingsigh | May 20, 2011, 07:32 PM EDT
Daithi – Unlike some, I tend to restrict my posts to things I know something about…however since you ask, I just don’t get the notion of a ‘Hierarchy of deaths’ in the Troubles. In particular, I don’t get the idea that lawyers, who by definition often represent the guilty, with the aim of getting them acquitted, and back on the streets, can expect special protection against ‘the guilty’ from the other side, who are also ‘on the street’ by reason of some other clever lawyer doing exactly the same thing…and as you say, we’ll only ever get ‘half truths’, so what’s the point?

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DaithiSuibhne | May 20, 2011, 03:55 PM EDT
Very sad commentary when we 'Irish' are unable to come to a consensus on the 'Greater Ills' of the nation. Global debt,Moral attitudes,Ineffective politics,Royal visit, are all the things that 'Great Britain' has taught us to believe in. We haven't been united since 'Brian Boru' ousted the Vikings in 1014 AD.BTW,barneyjo-danO-GeorgeD,Why haven't I seen any comment from you on 'We may have a 'Offical Inquiry' into the murder of Pat Finucane?

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