My fellow Gaels, be you Republican, Nationalist or otherwise count yourself as an Irish Patriot, I feel the need to address this letter to you with regards to upcoming events involving the British Royal Family. It is a plea, rather then a demand, for civility and good character.
As you all know, I am no advocate for the rejoining of Ireland into Great Britain. Far from it, my Monarchist sentiments are separatist and nativist as should be clear to all who read my blog. So I am not going to talk about such an issue.
Rather this is a plea, with regards to agitation amongst Irish Republicans in the Republic of Ireland, towards the Queen of England's state visit, and an encouragement of Irish Nationalists and Patriots to not fall into the pitfall of old hatreds.
To this I will seek to convince you how Her Majesty's visit to Ireland, benefits Ireland as its status as a Sovereign nation rather then a subject one. And to do that I must point out the difference between a visit by the British Monarch to Ireland 100 years ago, and the visit this year.
The difference is simple yet incredibly important. 100 years ago, the British Sovereign visited Ireland as its King and Head of State. Its ruler. At such a time we were very much subject nation. The visit was, in that sense, a personal one of a ruler to his subjects. This Year's visit is one of a stately nature.
By engaging in a State visit, Her Majesty the Queen does not wipe away or invalidate the grievances of the past and that we should all forget the bad stuff ever happened on either side, such as the rather rude telling off those West Britons in the Irish Media has been keen to pile on the already miffed Irish Republican community, rather, the State visit does something much more important for the Republic and one Irish Patriots should be more then happy with.
It is official, symbolic recognition by Britain of the status of Ireland as a Separate entity and Sovereign State. It is, while not written and certainly unspoken, the admittance by the British Government of the loss of Ireland as a territorial claim in any event, which coincides nicely with the past admission of the 'no selfish or strategic interest' we have heard with regards to the Northern Territory.
The visit of a reigning sovereign to Ireland is not an infraction upon the nation's sovereignty or a bold claim by said sovereign to Ireland. This is foolish thinking, one need not only look at the recent visit by the Sovereign prince of Monaco and his fiancée to Ireland, or the visit of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Llama. Both of whom are in fact Sovereigns, one Ruling and one in Exile. Instead, I would advise my fellow Irishmen to capitalize on this visit to show to the World the worth of Ireland. I beg of you to not engage in any plans by organisations to disrupt the visit, cause damage of a physical or proprietary nature to your fellow Irishmen wherever the Queen visits with her Husband, as this will hurt our nation's prestige by engaging in selfish activities that will no sooner help you reclaim the North of Ireland then help Cain finish his wanderings.
As an added plea, to Irish Republicans in particular, with regards to the upcoming Royal wedding. I will not argue you should care for the Joy of England, because that would be inane and irrelevant to you, in fact, I fully believe the wedding should not matter to you by principle. What instead I am asking you to do, is to refuse to attend the rival street parties being organised by British Republicans to protest the Royal Wedding celebrations, they have invited republicans from across Europe to join them.
I will not speak much about them, or their plans for they also have little to do with you or your goals with regards to Ireland. So you may wonder, what then, was the reason why I beg of you to refuse to join these Republicans in their activities? Surely they are as republican as you are? And this is where I am going to have to say no. They are not the same as you, at the very least, not the same as you from where you consider yourselves. For while Irish Republicans consider themselves the spiritual successors of Wolfe tones and the Irish Volunteers of the Easter Rising, the British Republicans are descendants of a much darker, deadlier beast. A shadow daemon who's name is still anathema to any sensible Irishman.
The British Republicans are the spiritual successors of the Arch Heretic, Oliver Cromwell and his Despoiler New Model Army which ravaged Ireland during the Jacobite Wars, banished our nobility and started the centuries of woe we romanticize in earnest.
If you care nothing of the British Monarchy, you certainly care for Ireland at the least. And I beg of you, not as a monarchist, but as an Irishman, for civility and principle. Do not lend credence to the British Republican movement, for by extension you put your lot in with Cromwell. And truly believe the ends of Revolution justify the means of Revolution. Which in this context I truly, in my heart, do not hold that most of you really believe such.
Happy Good Friday,
Servant of the Chief
Dia agus a choimeádann tú, slan go phoile
Very well said.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it could be put better really.
ReplyDeleteI think the Northern situation is just a pretext for these protesters; their instinct is to obstruct and oppose anything that seems lofty and idealistic and noble.
Thank you for speaking so eloquently on so important a topic. Well done.
ReplyDeletejust an alternative thought on the matter, if i were an irish monarchist who was realy into realpolitik, i would support the british republicans (under a false name) and hope they succeed, if the british monarchy were abolished the association of monarchy with britian would be weakened considerably, making the task of an irish monarchist easier, (servent of the chief, you yourself said that destroying that association is the key thing irish monarchists must do) but that is just if you are realy into realpolitik
ReplyDeletethere is one significant factaul error in this post, cromwell did not drive out the gaelic nobility, he did a lot of horible things in ireland, but he did not do that. they were already driven out when he came. (elizabeth the first drove them out if you want to know who)i know it is hard to keep track of the difirent british figures especialy as they were all omnicidal (i know that is not a word but it is the best description possible of the entire british government in ireland) loonatics on the issue of ireland
ReplyDeletei think a british republic would be great for Irish monarchism (probably not for monarchism as a whole though)
ReplyDeleteA British Republic wouldn't help the cause of Irish Monarchism what so ever, because then we'd have a powerful neighbour with a vested Ideological interest in preventing its closest neighbor from becoming a Monarchy.
Deletei should offer a little explanation as to why i said what i did,
Deleteone very insigtfull thing that michael collins once said was that he supported an irish republic to contrast it with the british monarchy, so a brtish republic would turn that idea around and make it help the monarchist camp (in ireland at least)
by the way did you know that the bride in this wedding is descended from cromwell, so you could say either side is pro cromwell but in different ways
ReplyDeleteI feel that to offer a true alternative to living in the UK, northern unionists, un-decided, and northern-irelander supporters should be given clear advantages in our united Ireland. I believe this united Ireland should (initially) be the union of two federal states, where Ireland and northern have a close unbreakable alliance, where certain religious freedoms and guaranteed, as well as providing flexibility for head of state. We give them everything they want, including the ability to keep the queen, or to bestow a ceremonial role for one of the Princes as a guardian of the Irish nation. We might even re-join the commonwealth, since it was re-created as a voluntary community of equals.
ReplyDeleteOur Ireland will grow strong and prosperous. Southern Ireland is a place of many religions and ethnicities, and we are all Irish, we are all united and at peace.
Northern Ireland is in pain and in debt. We should ease their pain through leadership. They receive billions from London to 'keep them afloat'. We would fix their broken economy and turn their economic charcoal into diamonds.
It is our dream to have our people united again. It's time to realise that Britain is our greatest ally and will help us achieve unity.
I should point out that freedom and independence and our national character is of paramount importance. I believe in our presidency, and the prescence of a foreign royal may inspire the one or two descendents of the Irish earls who now reside in the noble families of Europe (mainly Italy, Spain, Portugal) to return and take up residency.
DeleteThe Irish language should be broadened to recognise Scottish, Manx, Caribbean, Canadian and Argentine Gaelic.
We should educate the masses about the slavery of Irish children to Jamaica and later the southern USA.
There are so many great things we can do as a nation.
We should have the northerners develop a northern identity that's based on green and blue more compatible with our colours.
Agreements with Scotland. We Irish are the true scots. Through warping of history, they developed the kilt, pipes and colours, at a time it was illegal for our forefathers. It's completely ridiculous that so many Scots view us so negatively - their native music they call 'irish music', their native tongue they claim they never spoke, and their dialect of 16 century English they claim is their native language. Don't they know we had multiple dialects here ourselves?
Anyway, co-operation with Scotland is one of the lynchpins of smoothing relations with unionists.
There should be a new union, of north and south in a new republic. We are not threatened by pluralism, only by sectarianism and orangeism. The days of organizations that are based on division, like the Orange order are over -it's 2014 for God's sake. The days of Sinn Fein and it's socialism are over. The days of emnity between neighbours must end. We must hoist our golden harp and green and blue presidential flags high, and bring our neighbours with us.
It's time for the great Irish tiger to roar once again, living in eternal peace, but *seperately* from the great lion next door.