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STATE
VISIT AN EXTRAORDINARY MOMENT
In an RTÉ interview, the President also says this is 'absolutely the right moment' to welcome the head of state of our nearest
neighbor onto Irish soil.
'I think it is an extraordinary moment in Irish history, a phenomenal sign and signal of the success of the peace process and absolutely the right moment for us to welcome onto Irish soil.
Her Majesty, the Queen, the Head of State of our immediate next door neighbors, the people with whom we are forging a new future, a future very, very different from the past, on very different terms from the past and I think that visit will send the message that we are, both jurisdictions, determined to make the future a much, much better place.'
Meanwhile, Irish Republican dissidents have issued a bomb threat for central London, Scotland Yard said today.
Open letter to Queen from Justice for the Forgotten
Survivors and bereaved relatives of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings have written an open letter to Queen Elizabeth.
Her arrival tomorrow coincides with the 37th anniversary of the attacks in which 34 people, including an unborn baby, were killed - the greatest loss of life in a single day of the Troubles.
The 'Justice for the Forgotten' group wants the Queen to urge Britain's Prime Minister to release files that were withheld during the inquiry into the bombings.
The appeal comes as the Dáil prepares to debate a Sinn Féin motion calling on the British government to release all files relating to the bombings.
Meanwhile, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance group has said the visit by the British Queen is not the establishment of a 'new relationship', but the re-establishment of an old one.
In a statement, PANA said that while President McAleese described the visit as the culmination of the Irish Peace Process and the establishment of a 'new relationship' with England, they see it otherwise.
REMEMBERING
GARRET FITZGERALD
Politicians past and present praised the memory of Ireland's
former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald as a statesman and peacemaker.
Poignantly, the former Fine Gael leader who helped
negotiate the Anglo-Irish agreement died in Mater hospital, Dublin, hours
after the Queen made a historic reconciliation speech in Dublin Castle, made
possible by the 1985 accord.
David Cameron said: "He always struck me as
someone who was a statesman, as well as a politician, someone who was in
politics for all the right reasons and someone who made a huge contribution
to the peace process and bringing reconciliation for all that had happened
in the past."
A state funeral was held for the 85-year-old
politician, journalist and economist, who had been elected taoiseach twice,
in 1981 and 1987. His lasting achievement was to persuade Margaret Thatcher
to establish the Anglo Irish agreement in 1985 which gave Dublin some say
over Northern
Ireland affairs and was meant to bolster northern nationalist confidence
in constitutional politics.
The former Fine Gael leader also launched a social
reform program in Ireland aimed at secularizing the Republic.
Sir John Major said: "It was impossible to
know Garret FitzGerald without liking him, and impossible to like him
without admiring him. In difficult circumstances he sought to end conflict
and promote harmony. He left a legacy of affection and respect for what he
was as a man, and what he achieved as a statesman."
In a message to the Irish president, Mary McAleese,
the Queen said: "Please will you convey my sincere condolences to his
family." McAleese praised FitzGerald for his contribution to Irish
public life and described him as a renaissance man. "His thoughtful
writing, distinctive voice and probing intellect all combined to make him
one of our national treasures. Above all, Garret FitzGerald was a true
public servant."
Enda Kenny, his successor as Fine Gael leader and
the taoiseach said: "His towering intellect, his enthusiasm for life
and optimism will be missed by everyone."" He said FitzGerald
would have been at the reception for the Queen in Dublin Castle but for his
illness.
In Northern Ireland one of his fiercest political
opponents from the 1980s, the first minister Peter Robinson led the
tributes. He said: "Dr FitzGerald and I disagreed profoundly on many
things, especially the Anglo-Irish agreement, but he never allowed political
difference to become a bar to personal relations."
The SDLP president and Nobel peace prize-winner
John Hume, a close friend, said: "Garrett helped change the face of
Irish politics for the better and he enthusiastically embraced Europe and
the opportunities it afforded our island."
FitzGerald's parents had been involved in Sinn Féin
during Ireland's War of Independence and his father, Desmond, later served
as minister for external affairs in the Irish Free State's first government.
In later life, FitzGerald often spoke of his desire
to bring together the southern Catholic tradition of his father with the
northern Protestant tradition of his mother, Mabel.
He met his wife Joan at University College Dublin
and they were to have a famously close relationship. The couple had three
children.
FitzGerald worked for the Irish state airline Aer
Lingus before becoming an economic consultant and academic, and then a
politician. He was elected to the Irish Senate in 1965 and the Dáil in
1969. In parliament he became a fierce rival and critic of the future Fianna
Fail leader Charlie Haughey.
Fitzgerald had to face stern opposition from the
Catholic Church on proposed reforms on divorce, contraception and abortion
information.
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A HEALING SPEECH
In a landmark speech, the British head of state spoke of
the personal pain visited upon her and others by the years of conflict and
said, with hindsight, some things could have been done differently — and
others not at all.
Her keynote remarks at a state banquet in Dublin Castle were greeted with
prolonged applause as she addressed the blood- stained legacy shared by the
two nations to an Irish audience for the first time in her 59-year reign.
Opening her speech with "a Uachtaráin agus a chairde", the Queen
went on to express regret over the turmoil of the past.
"It is a sad and regrettable reality that, through history, our islands
have experienced more than their fair share of heartache, turbulence and
loss," she said.
In a clear reference to the IRA’s murder of her cousin Lord Mountbatten in
1979, the Queen added: "These events have touched us all, many of us
personally, and are a painful legacy. We can never forget those who have died
or been injured and their families.
"To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past, I
extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical
hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently,
or not at all.
"Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle, it is impossible to
ignore the weight of history, as it was yesterday when you and I laid wreaths
at the Garden of Remembrance.
"Indeed, so much of this visit reminds us of the complexity of our
history, its many layers and traditions, but also the importance of
forbearance and conciliation. Of being able to bow to the past, but not be
bound by it."
Speaking of the "golden thread" that connected millions of lives
across the two islands, the Queen added: "I applaud the work of all those
involved in the peace process."
Greeting the Queen, President Mary McAleese said the two nations, now equal,
needed to learn from the difficult centuries behind us.
"Inevitably, where there are the colonizers and the colonized, the past
is a repository of sources of bitter divisions," she said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, making a special trip to Dublin to
attend the state banquet and underline the significance of the Queen’s
presence in the Republic, said the two countries now had a "relationship
of opportunity" which would benefit both as he spoke of the possibility
of the Olympic torch passing through the Republic on its way to the London
games next year.
The Queen’s appearance at the GAA headquarters in Croke Park had been seen
as the most controversial part of her four-day tour, being the site of the
1920 Bloody Sunday massacre in which British troops killed 14 civilians.
Addressing the Queen, GAA president Christy Cooney said: "Your presence
does honour to our association, to its special place in Irish life, and to its
hundreds of thousands of members. Today will go down in the history of the GAA."
After the speech, he presented the monarch with a specially bound edition of
The GAA: A People’s History, and Prince Philip with a hurley and sliotar.
At Islandbridge, leaders of both traditions North and South, including members
of the UDA, were represented at the monument to those who died under the
banner of the crown in the two world wars.
The Queen laid a poppy wreath at the memorial’s ‘war stone’, while the
President laid a laurel wreath, before both leaders observed a minute’s
silence.
VISIT
WILL CEMENT BUSINESS RELATIONS
The Queen's visit and that of Barack Obama are seen as a rare chance to give Ireland the kind of positive international exposure that money can't buy. Tourism Ireland chiefs believe the visit will generate €150m (£130m) in positive publicity worldwide.
Ireland and Britain already enjoy a special relationship and in the last two years the Irish taxpayer has a lot to thank its nearest
neighbor for. The British taxpayer is on the hook for billions of bad debt generated by the Irish property crash. And it's not just the £7bn contribution to the IMF-EU bailout.
Some of the British aid used to prop up Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group Plc has already been wiped out by
write-downs on their Irish assets.
Royal Bank of Scotland, 84% government-owned, has a £52bn loan book in Ireland while Lloyds, 41% government owned, has around £26bn.
Lloyds has declared impairment charges so far of £4.8bn on its Irish loans, courtesy of Bank of Scotland Ireland which was a big lender to property developers like Bernard McNamara.
And RBS confirmed potential losses in Ireland through its Ulster Bank subsidiary had reached £7.3bn by the end of March 2011.
British taxpayers are ankle-deep in Ireland's recession.
But it works both ways – Ireland is a very valuable market for Britain with some £24bn worth of British goods and services consumed in the emerald isle – more than UK exports to Brazil, Russia, India and China combined.
The goods the Irish import most are food and drink (think Tesco and Marks & Spencer, both of which are prominent in Ireland) and clothing
(TopShop, Next, Accessorise, Ted Baker and all the other high street stores that make the Irish high-street
a copy of Manchester or Birmingham) and footwear (all the big British chains have a presence in Ireland including Clarks and Office).
Culturally and economically Ireland and the UK have been intertwined for centuries whatever the bloody history.
And if the Queen can deliver a little economic stardust in these stricken times, then the Irish won't be standing in her way.
The Irish government and the Irish Industrial Authority, which is responsible for foreign investment in Ireland, is milking the visit for all that it is worth. Alongside the Queen's visit are all sorts of fringe events designed to generate new business leads and relationships.
Foreign secretary William Hague – who along with David Cameron will be in Ireland for part of the visit – is meeting 400 business people on Tuesday night and another 400 again on Wednesday morning at 7am. A new business body, the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, will
also be launched.
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