Queen Elizabeth II offered her sympathy and regret on Wednesday to all those who had suffered from centuries of conflict between Britain and Ireland in a powerful and personal address to the Irish nation.
“To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past, I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy,” the queen said in a televised speech at a banquet in Dublin Castle, once the nerve centre of British rule in Ireland.
Dressed in a floor-length white gown with a diamond harp brooch glittering on her shoulder, the queen floored the assembled dignitaries when she began by addressing Irish President Mary McAleese and the audience in Irish.
Photo: EPA
“Wow,” McAleese exclaimed as the room burst into a spontaneous round of applause.
In her four-day state visit, the first by a British monarch since Ireland won its independence from London in 1921, the queen has shown a determination to address the bloody past and offer powerful gestures of reconciliation.
Her speech stopped short of an apology for British brutality, but its reference to “being able to bow to the past, but not be bound by it” struck the right note with Irish people, many of whom believe the country needs to leave its troubled relationship with Britain behind.
The queen, whose cousin was killed by militant Irish nationalists in 1979, also alluded to her own loss in an address that was watched in living rooms across the nation.
“These events have touched us all, many of us personally, and are a painful legacy,” she said.
Just hours earlier, the queen undertook one of the most daring diplomatic engagements of her 59-year reign when she stepped into Ireland’s Croke Park, scene of a massacre by British troops.
In a gesture that summed up how far relations between Ireland and its former colonial master have come, the queen was brought into Croke Park through the Hogan Stand, named after a player killed on “Bloody Sunday” nearly a century ago.
She met players, chatted about Irish sport, and was entertained by a marching band and traditional dancing, although the seats around the vast stadium were empty — a reflection of the tight security around the trip.
“It’ll put some demons to rest, bring a bit of closure,” said Phil Dolwer, 32, a chef working in a cafe around the corner from Croke Park. “The time is right.”
A 1998 deal ending Irish nationalists’ guerrilla war in Northern Ireland paved the way for the queen’s visit, but the threat from dissident nationalists has meant security is tighter than on trips to other countries. There are no public walkabouts and streets around venues have been cleared of onlookers.
Before guests at Dublin Castle tucked into a dinner of cured salmon, rib of beef and strawberries and cream, about 500m away a crowd of up to 100 people threw rocks and fireworks at police officers.
“It doesn’t matter what she says, her army is still in this country,” said Sean Keogh, a 21-year-old history student.
Guests at the state dinner included political leaders from north and south of the Irish border, as well as Brian O’Driscoll, Ireland’s rugby captain, Willie Walsh, the Irishman at the helm of British Airways, and Seamus Heaney, a Nobel Prize winner for literature.
Leaders of Sinn Fein, the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland and an opponent of continuing British involvement in the province, did not attend.
Even a few years ago, the presence of the queen, the commander in chief of British armed forces, in Croke Park would have been too much for many Irish people.
The stadium is an iconic place for nationalists. In 1920, during Ireland’s war for independence, British troops opened fire on a crowd there after 14 British intelligence officers were killed in the city the night before.
Fourteen civilians, one aged 10, were killed and “Bloody Sunday,” a rallying cry for the nationalist cause, was born.
Peace in Northern Ireland and British Prime Minister David Cameron’s apology last year for Northern Ireland’s “Bloody Sunday” in 1972, when British troops killed 13 protesters, cleared the way for the queen to visit.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in