Aontú party leader Peadar Tóibín has said he believes many “grassroots republicans will be very annoyed” at the decision of Sinn Féin’s deputy leader Michelle O’Neill to accept an invitation to attend the coronation of King Charles in London on May 6th.
Ms O’Neill announced on Wednesday she would be attending the event which will be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey in front of about 2,000 invited guests, including President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina, and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Announcing her decision, Ms O’Neill said: “We are living in a time of great change. A time to respect our differing and equally legitimate aspirations, a time to firmly focus on the future and the opportunities that the next decade will bring. I am an Irish republican. I also recognise there are many people on our island for whom the coronation is a hugely important occasion.”
In September, she attended the queen’s funeral service in London.
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Mr Tóibín, a former Sinn Féin TD, told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show on Thursday: “I think it’s it is damaging to our own interests to still have the situation where the British have jurisdiction over Ireland. It’s important to realise, I think, that we don’t have a normal relationship with Britain and pretending we do doesn’t change that.
“For example, the British parliament will pass a legacy Bill in May, and this Bill will give the British military personnel amnesty for murders that they’ve committed in Ireland over the last 50 years. This is a Bill that King Charles is going to give royal assent to in the next number of months.”
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Mr Tóibín, a TD for Meath West, denied it would be petty to decline the invitation to the coronation.
“King Charles is not a cuddly tourist attraction. He is the head of state of a British state that is basically stating that people who committed the Monaghan and Dublin bombings should not be brought to court, that there should be no investigation over their actions.
“I do think that there’s a mistake made here that when people think of reconciliation, they think it means that we wear the other side’s political clothing. And that’s the wrong idea of reconciliation.”
Mr Tóibín said he wanted to see better relationships with Britain. “I really do. But I think by sweeping issues under the carpet, it doesn’t help you have mature relationships with your neighbour. I do think we need to sit down with the British state and we need to work out all of the issues around the legacy areas.”
