When Will the Queen Visit U.K. Derry

When will the Queen visit the U.K. Bogside and the U.K.Falls Road?.

Since it is in order to call Derry the U. K. city it should also be in order to call the Bogside the U. K. Bogside and the Falls in Belfast the U.K. Falls. What brings this to mind is the proposed visit of the Queen to Dublin. It would be generally agreed that the Bogside and the Falls are no-go areas for a Royal visit and a heavy bitter history underlies that. In the early 20th century the relationship between the Crown and Ireland became ruptured. This rupture is aptly put in the ballad Kevin Barry: -

Another martyr for old Ireland
Another murder for the Crown
Whose cruel laws can kill the Irish
But cannot keep their spirit down

If the Queen’s visit is to repair the rupture and re-establish a new, close, permanent, working relationship between the Crown and the Irish that would be to the benefit of both but the visit could be about something else.

According to the Taoiseach the visit is to normalise an harmonious relationship between the two countries but that begs the question what exactly is being normalised. First of all a sectarian border is being normalized and with the Queen’s visit this sectarian border will be given the royal assent. Secondly the sectarian ghettoes in the 6 counties are being normalised and a Royal visit to Dublin will do nothing to eradicate this scandal but will perpetuate it. Thirdly the Royal visit will give the Royal assent to the constitutional mess the country is in. Two Heads of state in Ireland will be the established norm as will two conflicting national flags, two conflicting national anthems, along with two conflicting national passports. All of that will be reinforced by the Queen’s visit to Dublin and[U1] that reinforcement is perfectly acceptable to and condoned by a partitionist Dail Eireann, a Partitionist Westminster, a partitionist Irish President and now joining the partitionist ranks is a partitionist Queen.

Before the Queen visits Republican Dublin she should first visit the no-go areas in her own constitutionally dysfunctional disunited Kingdom in Northern Ireland. To date the Queen hasn’t made a Royal visit to the Bogside the Falls or Crossmaglen nor is it likely she will ever do so. It is hard to envisage the Queen doing a walk about in these districts with Martin Magennis waving a Union Jack and Martina Anderson presenting a red white and blue posy with a dutiful curtsy while Gerry Adams Peter Robinson Reg Empey and David Ford croon –God Save Our Queen—in four part harmony. But all of that is the real constitutional difficulty in Northern Ireland and Dublin and Westminster have washed their hands of that and now operate on the fallacy of a bogus G.F.A. constitutional settlement that cements sectarian division in Ireland and doesn’t bring peace.

While Dail Eireann Westminster the Irish President and now the Queen may be content to live with the constitutional mess Ireland is in, there must be those who see the mess as objectionable. Dr Hamilton has expressed concern about sectarianism but he sees the eradication of this as taking place in a U.K. constitutional frame work in N. Ireland. Archbishop Eames is of a similar outlook as is the Belfast Telegraph.. These people fail to realise that the border on the island is due to a sectarian mentality in Ireland North and South and if sectarianism is eradicated the border will be eradicated with it. To effectively combat sectarianism in Ireland it will have to be dealt with on an all Ireland basis since there is a sectarian mentality throughout Ireland. For those who are genuinely concerned about the eradication of this social disease an all Ireland approach is needed such as-- The National Government of Ireland Act---to give a written constitution for a Federal Kingdom. This Act is given in detail in the novel published by Authorhouse titled--- The Way Ireland Ought To Be and is available from Amazon Books In this approach the Crown would be constitutionally involved in a united all Ireland and would be constitutional Head of State of the Isles of the North Atlantic. If the visit of the Queen to Dublin were to be a step in that direction that would be welcome but if her visit is to ratify a sectarian border in Ireland Her Majesty would be well advised to stay put in Buckingham Palace and not become involved in Dublin in the historic constitutional mess Ireland is in. In the 21st century the rupture that happened between the Crown and the Irish in the early 20th century is repairable in a Federal Kingdom expressed in a written National Government of Ireland Act. The rupture repaired, Irish unity will follow. Why not do that?

Michael Gillespie

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