Madam, – According to Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, TD, (Front page,June 24th), Sinn Féin will oppose a visit by Queen Elizabeth unless “there is complete withdrawal of the British military and the British administration from Ireland”. Yet Sinn Féin is a party to power-sharing in Northern Ireland and Martin McGuinness holds the office of Deputy First Minister within the British constitutional framework. Under the Belfast Agreement and subsequent adjustments, Sinn Féin accepts the British presence and therefore,implicitly, the continuance of British security and administrative arrangements for the foreseeable future.
Co-existing uncomfortably with this sensible compromise, however, the jaded, united-Ireland, “Brits Out” rhetoric is also peddled – for fear, presumably, of losing hardline support. Deputy Ó Caoláin should be reminded that the Brits are in fact his party’s unionist colleagues in the Assembly and the Executive.
At this early stage, Sinn Féin’s doublethink should be exposed as rancorous and hypocritical. In any case, the sovereign Republic which Queen Elizabeth is invited to visit has no quarrel whatsoever with the lady. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – So Elizabeth Windsor will call on Mary McAleese – a case of the head of a dysfunctional family calling on the head of a dysfunctional country? – Yours, etc,