“My family and my government will stand alongside you, Mr President, and your Ministers, throughout the anniversaries of the war and of the events that led to the creation of the Irish Free State.”
Talk about not being shy about coming forward. In one sentence dear ol’ Liz Windsor booked her and her crowd at least two city breaks to Dublin in the next ten years.
I’m joking!
When we saw her bowed head at the Garden of Remembrance, we gasped. It was one of those moments that made you stop. Here was the Head of State in the United Kingdom remembering our war dead. Our war dead who wanted to rid this little country of everything her ancestors held dear. And yet, here was a frail old lady bowing her head on a sunny May Day.
Fast forward to last night’s banquet and those words. She wants to be here. She wants to celebrate our journey towards independence alongside us. With one line, she has changed the tone and atmosphere of the next ten years.
Despite what some might think, I wasn’t around for the 50th anniversary celebrations but from the grain, sepia-tone images I’ve seen, it was all very militaristic, all very manly and all very, very nationalistic in an insular way. We’re Irish and we’re fifty.
I wonder did any punter think all the gunfire and cannon fire were essentially aping our former oppressors and their love of pomp. But that’s history.
We now have the prospect of Easter Monday 1916 being graced by a Royal visitor( King Charles III?) who could lay a wreath outside the GPO.
Try getting our heads around that.
The head spinning will end as the following events will make perfect sense:
- We know more about English soccer than anything else
- We love our full voting rights on X-Factor
- They love all our writers
- We have Daniel-Day Lewis
- They have Terry WoganWe’re joined at the hip culturally
The garden fence that is our mutual history was twelve foot tall. Over the last few years it’s been replaced by a more manageable 5 foot. Nice for leaning on, swapping warm ale and good whiskey and chewing the fat like good neighbours do.
History doesn’t scare us anymore.
