Queen to pay respects to Ireland's fallen republicans

Dublin is set to see the first visit of a British monarch since 1911

(ap)

Karl Rowan is very hopeful of catching a glimpse of the Queen next week when she passes close to his stall in Moore Street, the bustling marketplace just offO'Connell Street in the authentic heart of Dublin.

He regards her state visit to Ireland, during which she will attend a ceremony at the nearby Garden of Remembrance, as a great idea, forecasting "a very big turnout" for her appearances during her four-day stay.

The visit will be the first by a British monarch since Ireland gained independence in 1921 after a period ofviolent rebellion.

"The past is past," Karl said firmly. "I get on great with English people, I find them very pleasant. Overall people want to get on with their lives – they're more interested in putting food on the table than living in the past.

"You'll probably have a few protesters, you always get them, but most people will be delighted."

Marie O'Connell, whose family has been selling fruit and veg from a Moore Street stall for five generations, gave a similar reaction. "It's an honour to have the Queen here," she said. "It's a wonderful thing; we do look forward to seeing her.

"I hear some people saying it shouldn't be allowed, but I say it's time to start building bridges and try to move on. Just because of what some of her people did in the past, we can't hold on to this forever."

The visit represents, among other things, an attempt to lay to rest some of the less fortunate aspects of British-Irish history and to mark the fact that Anglo-Irish relations are now in what has been described as a golden age.

The prevailing mood across the republic is one of approval for the trip, with opposition practically confined to dissident republicans, the far left and Sinn Fein. And the opposition of Sinn Fein, as the party moves towards the political mainstream, is more token than angry.

London and Dublin agreed, after years of discussion, that the time had arrived for an effort to ease some of the historical burdens and to draw the sting from past controversies.

This is why the Queen will be passing Moore Street. She will be on her way to the Garden of Remembrance which commemorates "all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish freedom".

This means those who opposed British rule by force, from the abortive rising of the United Irishmen in 1798 to the "War of Independence" in which republicans finally prevailed.

A largely independent Ireland came into being in 1922 after conflictinvolving figures such as Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera.

During the past century the republic has tended to concentrate on commemorating those who fought against Britain. But in recent times campaigners have successfully pressed for recognition of the deaths of thousands of Irish soldiers who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars, many of them in British uniform.

To mark this the Queen will also visit another set of war memorial gardens dedicated to them. She will lay wreaths at both sites.

She is also to visit venues including the Guinness brewery, but the event with the most potent symbolic charge will come when she arrives at the headquarters of Gaelic games, Dublin's Croke Park stadium.

This was the scene of an infamous event in 1920 that was sparked off when Collins ordered the assassinations of a dozen British intelligence agents. Some hours later British forces, possibly including the notorious Black and Tans, opened fire on the crowd. Fourteen civilians were killed on what became known as Bloody Sunday.

It has always lurked in the Irishhistorical consciousness but a new generation was reminded of it by the 1996 feature film Michael Collins. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA)was already regarded as an assertion of Irishness and of separation from Britain.

But after the events of that day Croke Park also had overtones of victimhood which were never forgotten: one of those shot, Michael Hogan, is commemorated to this day in the name of the Hogan Stand.

In recent years the early sense of anti-Britishness has diminished in both the GAA and Irish nationalism generally. For example, last month the organisation provided an honour guard at the funeral of a murdered police officer in Northern Ireland.

But it will be a highly significant moment when the Queen enters the stadium. The GAA said it was pleased to have been asked to receive the Queen, adding that it hoped to convey to her "a sense of the history and values of the GAA".

During her visit, the Queen can be expected to offer diplomatic words of regret about the incident, with the two governments working on a text which they hope will recast the events of 1920 in a new and conciliatory light.

Despite the baggage of history and a number of issues from the most recent troubles, which are still regarded as unfinished business, majority opinion in Ireland is already very much in favour of letting bygones be bygones.

"Ninety-eight per cent of people are very pleased she's coming," said a Dublin cultural commentator. "They will be fascinated to see her, just as they were absolutely fascinated by the royal wedding.

"We're delighted; we're thrilled, though we won't want to seem too overwhelmed. When the last state visit happened we were a colony of Britain – now we're an independent republic, with a sense of self-respect."

David Lyster, owner of the up-market Lord Edward restaurant in Dublin, said: "Young people today would be thinking that now it's a different age. Overall opinion is favourable, most rational people believe she should be made welcome."

His restaurant is named after Lord Edward Fitzgerald, an aristocratic rebel who died of wounds while resisting arrest on a charge of treason during the 1798 rebellion. Such names are not regarded as stirring declarations of patriotism, but rather as reminders of romantic times long past. The more recent troubles, however, have inflicted some fresh scars. In 1979 the IRA assassinated the Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, during one of his regular holidays in the west of Ireland.

The republic experienced a sense of national shame that it had been unable to protect the 79-year-old peer from the attack, in which three other people, including his 14-year-old grandson, were killed.

This time huge security measures are in place to ensure the Queen's safety, with police checking and sealing manhole covers all over Dublin in what locals say is the most stringent security operation they have ever seen.

During the visit large sections of the city centre, and some sections of motorways, will be completely closed to traffic in what will inevitably be a disruptive and expensive exercise.

Cost, rather than anything historical or political, was the only reservation which the Moore Street market trader MarieO'Connell expressed about the visit, saying ruefully: "I wish we didn't have to pay for all the security, because we just don't have the money."

After the Queen: Next up, Obama pitches for the Irish-American vote

The Irish could be forgiven for thinking that heads of state are a little like buses: you wait ages for one, then two turn up at once. No sooner does the Queen depart than the green carpet will be rolled out for Barack Obama.

When the US presidential bandwagon bowls into Dublin on 23 May, Ireland will have had just three days to catch its breath and adjust its petticoats following the Queen's departure.

Ostensibly, the whistle-stop tour by the White House and its entourage is to cement relations between the two nations; in reality, it is an early pitch by Obama for Irish-American support for a second term in office.

After the niceties of a formal speech before an estimated audience of 80,000 people at Croke Park, the Dublin stadium and spiritual home of most things Gaelic, it will be off to Moneygall in County Offaly for the serious business of the visit.

Moneygall, a village easily missed on the way to Limerick, is the ancestral home of President Obama's Irish relatives. Falmouth Kearney, shoemaker, like so many of his countrymen, quit the Emerald Isle in 1850 for a better life across the Atlantic. The Kearneys prospered to the extent that eventually Falmouth's great, great, great grandson became the 44th and current US President.

Now the normally sleepy village (population 300+) is steeling itself for a hooley of continental proportions.

Not that Moneygall's citizens are complaining. Since the town was first linked to the President's family tree, all sorts of shops selling merchandise and other presidential paraphernalia have mushroomed, hoping to make the most of the tourism boost. Locals are certain the visit will provide the most excitement since a truck filled with explosives – destined for a nearby quarry – crashed into a shop window last year.

Afterwards, it will be back to Dublin for more festivities which the Irish Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, is hoping will restore a smile to the face of a nation buffeted by bleak economic winds after years of the Celtic Tiger.

Davide Ghilotti