Sign Of Peace: Queen Elizabeth Shakes Hand Of Former IRA Commander

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Sign Of Peace: Queen Elizabeth Shakes Hand Of Former IRA Commander
June 27, 2012
by Mark Memmott - NPR

Queen Elizabeth II shook hands with Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness today in Belfast. McGuinness is a former senior member of the IRA.

Something that was "unimaginable a couple of decades ago" happened today in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when Queen Elizabeth II shook the hand of former Irish Republican Army commander Martin McGuinness, NPR's Philip Reeves tells our Newscast Desk.

As Philip adds:

"McGuinness used to be a senior member of the IRA, the group that killed the queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979. ... The handshake signals times have greatly changed since the end of the conflict, which claimed more than 3,500 lives, though some tensions remain."

McGuinness is now a deputy first minister in Northern Ireland's government. The queen is on a visit to Northern Ireland. McGuinness told the BBC it was "very nice" to meet her. And the BBC adds that according to a spokesman for McGuinness' Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, McGuinness told the queen that their meeting was a "powerful signal that peace-building requires leadership."

The BBC's Ireland correspondent, Mark Simpson, says today's handshake will not be the queen's "favorite moment of her 60-year-reign, but it is certainly one of the most significant."

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@BumbleBeeBoogie,

Martin McGuinness is an Irish Republican politician and Member of Parliament, and a former Provisional IRA leader. He is the Sinn Féin MP for Mid Ulster. He is also a member of the currently-suspended Northern Ireland Assembly, and served as Minister for Education in the Northern Ireland Executive.

McGuinness became Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator in the time leading to the Belfast Agreement. He was nominated by his party for a ministerial position in the power-sharing executive, where he became Minister for Education. He was re-elected to the Westminster Parliament in 2001, but along with the rest of his party has refused to take his seat there.

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@BumbleBeeBoogie,

From the BBC.

Quote:

The Queen and former IRA commander Martin McGuinness have shaken hands for the first time.

The meeting between the monarch and Northern Ireland's deputy first minister took place at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast on Wednesday.

It happened at an event organised by a charity, Co-Operation Ireland, which works to bring communities together.

They shook hands at a private meeting and later shook hands in public.

The private meeting, in a room at the theatre, involved a group of seven people, including Irish President Michael D Higgins and Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson.

The event took place at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast
It is understood Mr McGuinness welcomed both the Queen and the Irish president in Irish.

The deputy first minister is said to have commented on the Queen's visit to Dublin last year, and in particular her comments regarding all the victims of the Troubles.

A Sinn Fein spokesman said: "He emphasised the need to acknowledge the pain of all victims of the conflict and their families."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18607911

Sinn Fein is trying to appeal to voters in the Republic of Ireland. They've sorted out the Republic community in the north. This is as much a PR stunt on their part as it is a gesture of reconciliation.

Last year Gerry Adams refused to shake her hand when she visited Dublin. This was seen as churlish by most Republic of Ireland citizens.

Behind all of this is Adam's desire to play a leading role in the 100th anniversary of the Easter rising. He should have shook her hand a year ago.

They're fooling anyone this side of the Atlantic.

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@BumbleBeeBoogie,

BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:

"McGuinness used to be a senior member of the IRA, the group that killed the queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979. ...

I love how they threw that line in, but didn't give the queen the same consideration.

"The queen, a senior member of the British Royalty, the group the killed, tortured, starved, and sent the Irish packing for over 800 hundred years..."

Come on.. fair's fair.

Still, any peaceful day is a good day. Good on him.

1 Reply

@Ceili,

Ceili wrote:

BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:

"McGuinness used to be a senior member of the IRA, the group that killed the queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979. ...

I love how they threw that line in, but didn't give the queen the same consideration.

"The queen, a senior member of the British Royalty, the group the killed, tortured, starved, and sent the Irish packing for over 800 hundred years..."

Come on.. fair's fair.

Still, any peaceful day is a good day. Good on him.

Did you mean to leave out the impressment into the British Navy? Wasn't that one of the functions of the Red and Tans?

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It seem's there's a big difference in the attitudes on both sides of the Atlantic. In Britain and Ireland there has been a lot of work put in to bring about peace which was kickstarted by The Good Friday Agreement. We're trying to put the past behind us and look to the future.

You seem to be more concerned with raking over the past, and trying to stir up resentment. Why is that?

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@izzythepush,

Attitude aside. If it's me your talking to, my point was.. if they're going to spell out the sins of one, why not both? At this point who doesn't know about the IRA's past? Is it necessary to constantly beat the drum. He's paid for his sins.

After all, it directly affects my family, most likely not yours. All that violence for years, and for what? To paraphrase what I said before, peace is better than war. I'm happy this day has come.

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@Ceili,

My great granmdmother was Irish.

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@izzythepush,

Yup, it directly affects you...

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@Foofie,

Foofie wrote:

Did you mean to leave out the impressment into the British Navy? Wasn't that one of the functions of the Red and Tans?

Just when you think Miller could not prove to be any more stupid than she's shown herself in the past . . .

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By the way, there definitely is a pro-British slant to news about Ireland in North America, and it's even more pronounced in Canada than it is in the United States. The alleged crimes of Republicans are news, the alleged crimes of the SAS, the RUC and various Unionist paramilitary organizations are not.

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The Queen was BRAVE to go to Ireland personally.

There coud have been trouble.

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@Ceili,

You have no idea how my family has been affected by this. I'm not discussing it with someone who turned their back on Ireland and Britain when they buggered off to the other side of the Atlantic.

We're trying to move on, and it has absolutely nothing to do with you. You're about as Irish as green beer.

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@Setanta,

I know, Set it's so bad for you. How can you ever move on?

You like to dwell on our historical crimes without giving us any credit for moving on. It's almost as if you resent the peace process. How will you spend your days without a good reason to hate the British?

Quote:

Interesting how George Galloway was banned from your shores just because he tried to help the Palestinians. So much for free speech. perhaps it's alright to persecute people as long as they're Moslems.
Anti-war MP George Galloway has been banned from Canada, it emerged today.

A Canadian spokesman confirmed that the Respect MP had been deemed inadmissible on national security grounds and would not be allowed into the country.

Galloway today branded the ban "idiotic" and vowed to fight the ruling with "all means" at his disposal. He is due to give a speech in Toronto on 30 March.

Earlier today the Sun said border security officials had declared Galloway, 54, "inadmissible" because of his views on Afghanistan and the presence of Canadian troops there and would be turned away if he attempted to enter the country.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/20/george-galloway-banned-canada

At the end of the day I'm not particularly bothered what you think over there. I'm more concerned with what the Irish think. And if you actually bother to listen to whats happening now other than your own prejudices you might discover that relations between Britain and Ireland have never been better.

Britain loaned vast amounts of money to Ireland to stop their banks collapsing, Ireland was one of the few countries that voted for Englebert Humperdink in the Eurovision song contest, and many Irish still volunteer to serve in the Royal Irish Regiment.

The relationship between our two countries is very nuanced. The young Irish jobseekers would rather come to Britain than anywhere else because there is very little culture difference, unlike your side of the Atlantic where the difference is huge.

Green beer is a brilliant symbol for how much you really understand the Irish culture.

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@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

You have no idea how my family has been affected by this.

We will if u TELL us.

David

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@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

The young Irish jobseekers would rather come to Britain than anywhere else
because there is very little culture difference, unlike your side of the Atlantic where the difference is huge.

WHAT is the huge difference ?

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@izzythepush,

I have no problem moving on, you're just constructing a straw man. There is no reason to assume that i resent the peace process, and there is no reason to assume that i hate "the British." I'm glad that people of my ancestral homeland have peace, an outcome in which, by the way, Americans have taken an important part. I've only pointed out that the North American media have shown a bias.

Remarks about the Palestinians and Galloway are red herrings. You know nothing about my attitudes toward those issues, and were you paying attention to anything other than your own irrational hatred, you'd know that i have been uniformly critical of Israeli government policy.

You only make the comments about my Irish heritage because you hope to construct a barb that will sink in. Too bad for you that you know so little about me--as it happens, i don't drink beer of any kind, at any time, with or without green food coloring. It's pathetic how eager you are to distort what i write in the hope of bringing me into disrepute. What's even more pathetic is how eager you are to find a means of angering me with insults. Being the low life you are, you attempt to do so by a racist means. I'm not at all surprised.

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@Setanta,

You're angry with everyone. You use insults more than anyone else.

I think that this hopeful and really think we should look to the future. People like you prefer to dwell in the past and brood over past injustices.

You'd be less of a hypocrite if you spent as much time and effort looking at the way your country has acted around the world, and towards its own indiginous population.

You've made plenty of anglophobic comments in the past. If you read my posts you'll see that I have Irish heritage too. Although I prefer not to wallow in self-pity and cast myself as the constant victim.

Galloway was not a red herring, it pointed out the way your country of residence is quite happy to turn a blind eye to oppression when it suits it. Oppression which is still going on by the way, whereas we're actually trying to do something about our injustices.

It was the British Government that commissioned a report into the Bloody Sunday killings which did not make comfortable reading. We're coming to terms with the bad things our country has done. A similar period of introspection wouldn't do either of your countries any harm.

If you want to see what a low life racist looks like, take a look in the mirror

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@izzythepush,

I insulted no one with my post. That's what you've been doing.

But i'm sure you're right, Bubba. You're always right, huh, Bubba?

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@Setanta,

I wasn't specifically talking about that one post when I mentioned your prolific use of insults, but you knew that.

You've got a bit of a brass neck accusing others of using the 'straw man' tactic.

In any event, your opinion is largely irrelevant, you don't know what the situation is like in Ireland today, you're talking about some idealised myth.

In this matter I'd rather talk to actual Irish people as opposed to pseudo Irish like yourself. At least they know what they're talking about.

I won't be talking to you about this any more, so you can get the last word in.

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Sign Of Peace: Queen Elizabeth Shakes Hand Of Former IRA Commander

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