It’s heady times for the Irish Isle, which in the past seven days has welcomed Queen Elizabeth II (the first visit of an English monarch since the Republic gained independence in 1922); the American president (whose forebear, Falmouth Kearney, was the immigrant son of wigmakers); and nine Duke students who will work with cross-community groups in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Belfast and Furious 2011
As I write, the President is laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, in London’s Westminster Abbey. The Irish and British press (including Northern Ireland’s leading papers, the Belfast Telegraph and the Irish News) are still buzzing about these visits, which meant so much to people on both sides of the Irish-UK border in the island. The Queen gave a very moving and eloquent speech during a state dinner at Dublin Castle, referring to a shared past of suffering and loss. She could speak both as representative of the state and as victim, since her husband’s uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979, while he was vacationing in Ireland.
Perhaps the most important and long-awaited section of her speech were these few lines:
“It is a sad and regrettable reality that through history our islands have experienced more than their fair share of heartache, turbulence and loss.
“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 or 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.
“But it is also true that no one who looked to the future over the past centuries could have imagined the strength of the bonds that are now in place between the governments and the people of our two nations, the spirit of partnership that we now enjoy, and the lasting rapport between us.”
President Obama’s visit was much less fraught and almost giddy. He and the First Lady landed in a gale and were quickly helicoptered to Moneygal, the village that Falmouth left behind on his way to America. He and his wife did taste the Guinness (the Queen and Prince Philip abstained) and Obama showed his wicked sense of humor in his later speech in Dublin, making reference to the birther nonsense regarding his own origin in Hawaii.
It turns out that people take a lot of interest in you when you’re running for President. (Laughter.) They look into your past. They check out your place of birth. (Laughter.) Things like that. (Laughter.) Now, I do wish somebody had provided me all this evidence earlier because it would have come in handy back when I was first running in my hometown of Chicago — (applause) — because Chicago is the Irish capital of the Midwest. (Applause.) A city where it was once said you could stand on 79th Street and hear the brogue of every county in Ireland. (Applause.)
In the north, people watched both visits with a hopeful, though careful optimism. In terms of sectarian divisions, things are somewhat stalled here (more on this later). Belfast remains a deeply divided city, with incidents of violence still capable of roiling an otherwise improving political future. What scares many people, orange and green, is the deepening economic crisis. How much will that erode the already substantial gains toward peace? My 9 Dukies are spread all over Belfast and will have much to say on this in the coming weeks.
Go Queen! Go Barry! And GTHC, go Duke!
Related articles
- Obama in Ireland to discover his Irish roots (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Queen arrives in Ireland as military defuses bomb (cnn.com)
- Obama finds his inner Irishman | Padraig Reidy (guardian.co.uk)
- Queens visit: The Irish question finally resolved (adv Unionism)? (sluggerotoole.com)
