Queen’s Visit to Ireland: Remembering The Bombs In Dublin, Monaghan And Birmingham
IRELAND is making ready for a visit from Her Majesty the Queen. The impoverished country, bailed out by the EU-International Monetary Fund, has found some cash for the Queen’s first State visit to the country. Perhaps some of the £7bn the UK has dropped on Ireland will fund the trip?
The parade and party is not popular with everyone.
Campaign group Justice For The Forgotten represents the bereaved families and survivors of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
A total of 34 men, women and children – including an unborn baby – were killed in the no-warning explosions in Dublin and the border town of Monaghan on 17th May 1974. It was the greatest loss of life in a single day of the Troubles. Justice For The Forgotten has appealed to the monarch to urge Prime Minister David Cameron to open secret files which were withheld during an inquiry.
The loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force eventually admitted carrying out the bombings in 1994. The belief is that the British aided them. There has been no official enquiry. No-one has every stood trial.
On November 21, 1974, the IRA detoanted two bombs in central Birmingham pubs. Twenty one people were killed. The guilty have never been caught.
And there is Eirigi (a socialist republican political party). It’s chairman, Brian Leeson, has vowed disrupt the state visit.
The impression is that no-one wants the Queen in Ireland apart from the politicians who invited her. It makes you wonder what the purpose of the visit is?
Mary McAleese, the Irish president, says:
“(It is) a phenomenal sign and signal of the success of the peace process and absolutely the right moment for us to welcome onto Irish soil, Her Majesty the Queen, the head of state of our immediate next-door neighbours.”
The Queen will lay a wreath in Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, which honours those who died fighting to free Ireland. She will also visit Croke Park stadium. In 1920, British Army went there and killed 14 at a Gaelic football match.
It is a visit heavy on symbolism.
Posted: 16th, May 2011 | In: Royal Family Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
