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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Royal wedding of William and Kate a fitting circus for a fading empire

Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 03:22 PM

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The "heir and the spare" is how Princess Diana once referred to her two sons, Prince William and Harry, neatly capturing what all this royal business is about.

Kate Middleton will not be judged on her looks, her accomplishments or even her middle class as against bluebood ancestral lines.

No, like a good stud mare, she will be judged by whether she produces preferably a few young colts to make sure the blood lines continue.

Prince William after all is a product of what Warren Buffet has memorably called the "lucky sperm club," the inheritor of wealth, class and title, none of which he earned for himself.

His main job is to ensure that he passes on the royal bloodlines, created in his case, through his grandmother Elizabeth who became queen only after the male-in-line, Edward, began to show Nazi sympathies then ran off with an American divorcee who shared his Aryan philosophy.

Prince Harry recently paid nice homage to his ancestor by dressing up as a Nazi at a party.

Of such events are great dynasties born.The past is all elided over and the future comes packaged in a box called hype and hyperbole.

We will learn all there is to know about the prince and his bride-to-be. Sadly, he exists mainly to fulfill the fantasies of a nation. she now exists to reproduce.

He has no real power, except to attract tourists in their millions every year to a grown-up version of Disneyland.

I passed by Buckingham Palace on a recent visit to London and was astounded by the waiting thousands there for the changing of the guard.

Like so much in Britain these days, it is all about symbolism and play acting, not the real thing.The days of imperial power are long gone but the fantasy machine will be greatly enhanced by this royal wedding.

As for the average Briton, he and she will continue to struggle in these harsh economic times, but many will be happily distracted by the circus around the royal wedding of the future king.

When the confetti is swept away however, the harsh realities will resume. It will take far more than a royal wedding to halt the decline of the most famous empire.

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ancavker | Nov 23, 2010, 11:37 AM EST

JohnTobin: I am not sure where you are getting your information from but I never said that Irish people who left and settled in England were traitors to their country. In fact I have relatives in England, and quite frankly they are more Irish than the many of the Irish in Ireland. Which of course really annoys many of the Irish in Ireland. The plastic paddies in England and the dumb yanks in the U.S. That is how we are looked at by many in Ireland. Now that being said. I do have a problem with the fact that Ireland was brutalized down through the centuries, and was never allowed to develop perhaps the way it could have, had England not did what it dd down through the years. To be thankful now to that same country is in my opinion a little rich.

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Liamkeyes | Nov 22, 2010, 10:25 AM EST

Well, you know what they say about Bread and Circuses..........As for the so called Royal Wedding, Frankly, my Dear, I don't give a damn!! A Country in a huge recession and going to spend Millions on a Wedding.

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seanomelbourne | Nov 21, 2010, 06:15 PM EST

Yawn Yawn boring who cares.

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SeamusMor | Nov 21, 2010, 03:29 PM EST

It's all good, just don't accuse me of being anti-semantic!

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Towngate | Nov 21, 2010, 07:18 AM EST

@SéamusMÓR. "...to do battle with ..." and " ...joined in battle ..." are tricky phrases clearly,but all imply "fighting AGAINST " Damn tricky language, this "Bearla", don'-cha-know!............No offence intended , a chara - or taken, I hope. Sláinté!

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DanOLoingsigh | Nov 20, 2010, 05:10 PM EST

kateomprint...or grandfather, in my case. Couldn't agree more.

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kateomprint | Nov 20, 2010, 02:23 PM EST

Our heads of state at the moment are the laughing stock of the world and I don't care about that either. Why are people obsessed with the goings on of the rich and famous. I am sure she suffered at the death of Lord Mountbatten. I personally can't stand violence on any level All the people who have been killed here in Ireland in the name of Freedom were somebody's son/daughter.

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DanOLoingsigh | Nov 20, 2010, 02:12 PM EST

Kateomprint – I agree that we shouldn’t care about this royal romance, but the postings below suggest something different. I just find it strange that we all feel free to have a go at their Head of State, but would go ballistic if the reverse happened. We cannot know much about the British Queen, but we put opinions into her mouth…I only know that one of her most traumatic moments must have been how her beloved uncle met his fate…

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kateomprint | Nov 20, 2010, 01:55 PM EST

Could he not afford to buy her a new ring. The one she is wearing is so steeped in misery it doesn't bode very well for their future together. Anyway a lot of people don't care about whether William and Kate get married or not.

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SeamusMor | Nov 20, 2010, 10:43 AM EST

The O'Briens did not march with Henry II.

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JOHNTOBIN | Nov 20, 2010, 03:30 AM EST

I would like to ask ancavker how he,or she,feels about the thousands of Irish immagrants who have migrated to the United Kingdom over the years in search of a better life and higher standard of living-are they traitors to the land of their birth?On another matter I have read that Eamon de Valera was agreable to the idea that if Northern Ireland united with the Republic of Ireland he would be favourable to the idea of the united Ireland rejoining the British Commonwealth.

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seamusmoore | Nov 19, 2010, 08:32 PM EST

I find it fascinating that Niall cherry picks his British dislikes. He dislikes the Royals but yet this website is fascinated by Premiership soccer, gay Welsh rugby players and assorted other "things English" that Irish America really don't care about. I would like to read more about traditional Irish culture (music,literature and SPORTS), which is only still prevalent in the west and southwest. Most of IC's correspondents are within the Pale, make them more West Brits than Irish. I really have little use for the constant bombardment of stories on here about Robert Pattison (an English actor).

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Towngate | Nov 18, 2010, 03:01 PM EST

@ancavker: my personal admiration of your educating zeal on this Site is growing fast.Don't worry about the Irish-American image abroad.There will always be ingorance on both sides until we all know Everything! - that ain't gonna happen. ............Btw: Pearse was called 'Paddy' at home by his mother and English father, and only changed it from Patrick to "Paidraig" when he started getting his "Notions of Upperosity!"! He wrote movingly: "God, Thou art hard on Mothers!" Alive today he might say " Niell, asthore, thou art hard on my fathers Country, and very rude to it's young women who have never done you any harm! Shame on you!" Even Cormac in his'West's Awake' Blog had the humility to acknowledge a chorus of disapproval.Try to learn some manners from him! Say Sorry!

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ancavker | Nov 18, 2010, 09:49 AM EST

John Tobin: Mr. O'Dowd was born in Ireland,and now lives in America. And from what I understand he travels back and forth to Ireland on a regular basis. So I would think he understands modern Ireland. One more thing not all Irish Americans are ignorant. We don't all sit on bar stools in teh Bronx and sign Sean South. As far as ignorance. I have met more than few Irish people in Ireland over the years, who never heard of Patrick Pearse, and more than a few others who thought Donegal was one of the six counties. Ignorance knows no boundaries.

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ancavker | Nov 18, 2010, 09:44 AM EST

Dan those other countries, Norway and the rest are just like England, entitled to their royalty if that is what they want. That being said, I am still entitled to my opinion that I find thw whole royalty thing repugnant, simple as that. Also as far as those other countries that you mention, their royal families appear to live much more quietly, and without much of the silliness that surrounds the English royal family. For instance, the King and Queen of Spain live outside Madrid, and not in a castle. The Royal family of Norway is a fairly recent invention only coming into existence after Norway's split with Sweden in 1905. As far as Belguim, well the royal family there does not seem to have a uniting effect as the two ethnic groups who make up Belguim (Flemish and Walloons) are going to split the country on two.

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