For some Irish, Queen Elizabeth II’s legacy is complicated
2022.09.09 15:05
The death of Queen Elizabeth II has drawn condolences from across the globe. Among those who paid tribute were Irish politicians, who praised the queen’s efforts to repair strained ties between Ireland and Britain.
But for many Irish, the occasion of the queen’s death — and her legacy — surfaced emotions that were much more mixed. Some of the reactions — including a group of soccer fans singing “Lizzy’s in a box!” in Dublin on Friday — were denounced as callous. But others have spoken to a long, painful history of violent conflict and colonial rule.
Ireland gained its independence from Britain in 1922, ending eight centuries of English political and military intervention for most of the island. Northern Ireland, though, opted to remain part of the United Kingdom — and unresolved tensions between nationalists who wanted to be part of the republic and unionists loyal to the Crown led to decades of violence known as the Troubles between the late 1960s and late 1990s.
Anne Marie Quilligan, a social care worker from Ireland’s Limerick region, said on Thursday that the mixed reactions from Irish and other people whose nations suffered under the British Empire were “collective trauma.”
“Unresolved trauma can become generational,” she wrote on Twitter. “Colonisation is a trauma.”
Hannah Wanebo, an Irish American lawyer based in Dallas, wrote on Twitter that her Irish grandmother hated England so much that she would only travel home on flights that did not touch down on English soil.
“I’m shocked by how many people think the Potato Famine was due to crop failure and don’t know the English EXPORTED food from Ireland to England during that time – enough food to feed all the Irish who died,” Wanebo wrote, referring to the 19th-century famine in Ireland that resulted in the deaths of as many as a million Irish people and the emigration of another 2 to 3 million escaping starvation.
Elizabeth wasn’t queen during the Irish famine. But she reigned during the Troubles in Northern Ireland — and when the two sides made peace with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
In 2011, she made history as the first monarch to travel to Ireland since its independence. Elizabeth traveled the country and addressed the two nations’ difficult, shared past head-on.
“To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past, I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy,” she said in a speech at Dublin Castle. “With the benefit of historical hindsight, we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.”
In 2012, the queen shook hands with Martin McGuinness, a former commander of the Irish Republican Army who had become deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. The IRA, a paramilitary group that used violent tactics in its pursuit of Irish reunification, had killed the queen’s cousin in 1979.
Michelle O’Neill, head of the nationalist Sinn Fein party that was previously associated with the IRA, shared her sympathies with the royal family Thursday.
“Throughout the peace process she led by example in building relationships with those of us who are Irish, and who share a different political allegiance and aspirations to herself and her Government,” O’Neill said in a statement.
In a statement after her death, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, head of the Republic of Ireland’s government, said that state visit “marked a crucial step in the normalisation of relations with our nearest neighbour.” Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Fein, called the queen “a powerful advocate and ally of those who believe in peace and reconciliation.”
Others shared excerpts of a column last year by Patrick Freyne in the Irish Times, on the struggle between Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and the rest of the royal family. Freyne argued that the monarchy was an archaic institution with no future.
“Having a monarchy next door is a little like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and has daubed their house with clown murals, displays clown dolls in each window and has an insatiable desire to hear about and discuss clown-related news stories,” Freyne wrote in March 2021. “More specifically, for the Irish, it’s like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and, also, your grandfather was murdered by a clown.”
Irish Times correspondent Naomi O’Leary pointed out that some videos and claims circulating on social media following the queen’s death were misinformation. The Associated Press debunked one claim that a video showing an Irish dance group performing a routine to the Queen song “Another One Bites the Dust” outside Buckingham Palace occurred on Thursday after the queen’s death. In fact, the group posted the video on social media months before, in January.
With some exceptions, O’Leary said, the Irish public largely sympathizes with the British people over the loss of their queen.
“The actual response in Ireland is yes, some indifference because it’s not important to everybody,” she tweeted of the queen’s death. “But public expressions are overwhelmingly empathetic to our neighbours, friends and in many cases family members.”
Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.
Press Enter to skip to end of carouselQueen Elizabeth IIBritain’s longest-reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II died September 8 at age 96. Follow our live coverage as the U.K. mourns and the new king, Charles III, delivers his first address to the nation.The queen ruled for more than 70 years, in 2015 surpassing the record set by her great-great-grandmother Victoria. She presided over the shrinking of the British Empire and the rise of globalization. She has anchored the country through uncertainty — and the royal family’s own dramas.An elaborate plan called “Operation London Bridge” maps out what will happen over the next 10 days following the queen’s death, including the solemnity and pageantry of a royal funeral and the ascension of a new monarch.
