The Queen's Speech
The Queen is in Ireland - first time a British monarch has set foot there for a century, and first time she's been to the Republic.
Understatement of the century.
I actually had a dream about this visit the other night. I believe the words "should bloody apologise!" were uttered. Her speech seems to have gone down well, according to the BBC, but I feel very ambivalent about her visit.
Building bridges is good. At the same time, visiting Croke Park ... a massacre of innocent people by the British ... it rubs me the wrong way. She's the head of a commonwealth that kept Ireland enslaved for over half a millennia and just because they finally let (most of) Ireland become independent in 1949, suddenly everything's okay, business as usual, forget it ever happened? Sod that. An apology would've been appreciated. Really.
Reference: Read a transcript of the Queen's speech
Of course the relationship has not always been straightforward; nor has the record over the centuries been entirely benign.
Understatement of the century.
An apology was not expected, BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said, but the Queen came "pretty close".
I actually had a dream about this visit the other night. I believe the words "should bloody apologise!" were uttered. Her speech seems to have gone down well, according to the BBC, but I feel very ambivalent about her visit.
Building bridges is good. At the same time, visiting Croke Park ... a massacre of innocent people by the British ... it rubs me the wrong way. She's the head of a commonwealth that kept Ireland enslaved for over half a millennia and just because they finally let (most of) Ireland become independent in 1949, suddenly everything's okay, business as usual, forget it ever happened? Sod that. An apology would've been appreciated. Really.
Reference: Read a transcript of the Queen's speech
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