Ireland Needs a closer Link with the Crown than a one-off Visit

Ireland needs a closer link with the Crown than a one off visit.

It will come as a relief to a partitionist Dail Eireann and a partitionist Dublin that the Royal visit seemingly gives the Royal assent to the border. But the assent will only be partial for as long as there remains no-go areas for her Majesty in the districts of the Falls in Belfast and the Bogside in Derry within the Kingdom. Should the day come when Her Majesty does a walk about in these districts with the people waving Union Jacks and proffering red white and blue posies to the Royal person with the blessing of Martin Magennis and Katrina Anderson while the cathedral choirs of St Peter’s and St Eugene’s chorus-- Rule Britannia-- in the background then partition in Ireland is there for keeps.

That of course is a ridiculous scenario but it isn’t ridiculous to say that the Catholic community in Ireland is brainwashed with Tricolour Republicanism and the Protestant community in Ireland is brainwashed with Union Jack Unionism and as long as that is the case the border will be a bone of contention on the island. When the day comes when both communities are freed from the mental shackles of this sectarianism and thus freed both communities accept a reformed Crown as Head of State of the Sovereign Nation of all Ireland within a Federal Kingdom then and only then will the border be obsolete and the sickness of sectarianism be eradicated from the Island. To achieve this Ireland needs a closer link with the Crown than a one off visit to Dublin.
In having the Republic join the Commonwealth is insufficient and will do nothing to eradicate sectarianism.

Michael Gillespie