Queen Elizabeth shakes hands with Irish deputy

[Isgrimnur]

Independent

QUEEN Elizabeth has shaken hands with Martin McGuinness in a gesture that means as much to the peace process as her groundbreaking visit to Ireland last year. The British monarch and the North’s deputy first minister met briefly when the Queen visited a theatre in Belfast to view an art exhibition.
...
Mr McGuinness, as he held the monarch's hands for a few moments, spoke to her in Irish and told her the words meant: "Goodbye and God speed."
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Sections of the nationalist community are vehemently opposed to the meeting between the Queen and Mr McGuinness.

The significance of the meeting can hardly be overstated; Mr McGuinness was allegedly a senior IRA commander at the time the terrorist group murdered Earl Mountbatten, a cousin of the Queen and uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1979, and for decades the Queen was a prime target for the IRA.

Mr McGuinness has said he had left the IRA by the time of Earl Mountbatten’s murder.
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Some victims of IRA attacks believe it is wrong for the Queen to shake Mr McGuinness’s hand, while Mr McGuinness has been criticised by some republicans for engaging with the woman who symbolises British rule.

Overnight more than 100 protestors fought running battles with police in Belfast, throwing 21 petrol bombs and injuring nine officers.

Every vehicle was removed from the roads around the Lyric Theatre, and no pedestrians were allowed in or out of the one-mile exclusion zone.

It's kind of odd to consider the success that people from a group formerly branded as terrorists have become part of a ruling European power.

I still need to do some reading about The Troubles and get a better background on the history of the Irish government.

[AWS260]

The peace process in Northern Ireland really has been extraordinary. In 1996, I was in Ireland for a semester abroad, and my small class of naive American kids met for an hour with Billy Hutchinson, a Unionist terrorist-turned-politician. It was incredibly eye-opening. This guy, who had spent years in prison for driving a car during the murder of two Catholics, was fully committed to the peace process (which was pretty shaky at the time), simply because he knew it was the only way toward a better future for his community. He didn't give a shit about the Queen or religion, he just wanted to his neighbors to be able to get jobs and to not get bombed by the IRA.

[LawBeefaroni]

The peace process in Northern Ireland really has been extraordinary. In 1996, I was in Ireland for a semester abroad, and my small class of naive American kids met for an hour with Billy Hutchinson, a Unionist terrorist-turned-politician. It was incredibly eye-opening. This guy, who had spent years in prison for driving a car during the murder of two Catholics, was fully committed to the peace process (which was pretty shaky at the time), simply because he knew it was the only way toward a better future for his community. He didn't give a shit about the Queen or religion, he just wanted to his neighbors to be able to get jobs and to not get bombed by the IRA.

I was there in 1995 during the ceasefire. I spent a little time in West Belfast down Shankill and Falls roads. Pretty amazing times, the tension was still there but people seemed hopeful. Gerry Adams everywhere, all the time.

It seemed that the further from the North you got, the more people clung to hating the British. I was in Cork during the Rugby World Cup quarters and semis and everyone wanted and Ireland/England matchup in the Finals. In the one bar we frequented, the owner would kick out anyone who asked for an England game. Which was weird, because he often turned the games on himself because he loved rooting against "the most hateful bastards in the world". Alas, the matchup never happened.

In Dublin, everyone was interested in the political intrigue than anything else. Adams was a rock star. They were also filming Michael Collins so it made it almost surreal.

When we finally made it to Belfast, there was constant suspicion, plenty of clear evidence (army patrols, guys with guns in some of the shadier pubs we went to, etc) but also a lot of what seemed like war-weariness. My take was that in the North, they were just tired of it all having endured the brunt. In the south "the struggle" was almost romantic in nature. In Dublin, it was all about money (this was right before the boom).

...Mr McGuinness was allegedly a senior IRA commander at the time the terrorist group murdered Earl Mountbatten, a cousin of the Queen and uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh...

I guess maybe I already knew this, what with it being a Monarchy and all, but seeing it like that kind of struck me. The Queen married her cousin's nephew?

[Isgrimnur]

Louis Mountbatten

uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and cousin (strictly, second cousin once removed) to Elizabeth II.

[LawBeefaroni]

Louis Mountbatten

uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and cousin (strictly, second cousin once removed) to Elizabeth II.

Like I said, I probably knew it and could have googled it, but it's just weird seeing it so casually (though indirectly) mentioned in a news article like that.

[Isgrimnur]

Not only didn't I know it, I missed the connection, not really having an awareness of the titles and structure of the royal family. So your little aside was research bait for me.

And the article is from an Irish paper where that information is probably a lot more deep background than item of note for the audience. Which is one of the reasons that I change the edition on my Google News feed every now and again. You never know what you're going to find.

[AWS260]

R.I.P. Martin McGuinness.

In bombings and killings that raged from the 1960s to the ’90s between Protestant and Roman Catholic forces — the Troubles that left 3,700 dead — Mr. McGuinness was widely believed to have joined, and later directed, terrorist activities. He denied the allegations. His only convictions, in the early ’70s, were for possessing explosives and ammunition and for belonging to the outlawed I.R.A.

But in his 40s he evolved into a peacemaker and politician. He was chief negotiator for Sinn Fein, the political arm of the I.R.A., in a complex Good Friday Agreement in 1998, in which Britain, Ireland and the political parties of Northern Ireland created a framework for power-sharing in Belfast and for eventual resolution of issues like sovereignty, civil rights, disarmament, justice and policing.