Ireland

I've commented on this before--Ireland is just 100 miles off the coast of England, but it may as well not even exist for all the attention it gets.  The weather teams just show it as a featureless brown spot in the ocean.  It only makes the news if something terrible happens, like the government collapses or it has to file for bankruptcy (both of which have happened in the last six months).  And the last time the monarch visited Ireland was 1911!

It's hard for me to understand how two countries that are so close have such strained relations, until I thought of Cuba.  Can you image the President visiting Cuba? Actually, that's probably a bad analogy, because the Cubans would welcome Americans.  The Irish clearly had mixed feelings when the Queen went to visit yesterday.

Although there were protests, they weren't very large, and were pretty civil.  It's easy to understand the protests given the history between the two countries.  England has invaded, conquered, and then neglected the Emerald Isles several times over the past thousand years.  Henry VIII, in particular, invaded again in 1536, and then as part of the English Reformation he disenfranchised all Catholics, which represented 85% of the population!  Catholics were prevented from owning land, leasing land, voting, holding political office, living in or near a town, obtaining education, and entering a profession!  He seized lands of the Church and Catholics and gave them to Protestant settlers or to "absentee landlords."  For the next 200 years, rebellions by Irish Catholics were put down brutally.

Although the laws were repealed by 1800, the effects were devastating, with people "on the verge of starvation, three-quarters of her labourers unemployed, housing conditions appalling and the standard of living unbelievably low."  Land holdings were so small that only potatoes would suffice to feed a family. In 1845, the British government reported that poverty was so widespread that one-third of all Irish small holdings could not support their families.

Then in 1844 potato blight came to Ireland, probably from Peru, and decimated the crop. Of the 8 million inhabitants,1 million died from starvation and another 1 million emigrated.  Queen Victoria sent £2000 (equivalent of £160,000 today), but the bigger problem was that England refused to close the ports, so the absentee landlords continued to ship produce from Ireland to England.  As one writer put it, "The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine."  (He was promptly charged with sedition and sentenced to 14 years transportation to Bermuda.)

As is so often the case, the English then sowed the seeds for their own undoing when they began forced conscription of Irish soldiers during World War I.  The trained and armed Irish, upon returning home, launched a guerrilla war for independence in 1919.  However, the Protestant elite and Catholic majority could not come to terms, and Britain (as is so often the case) made matters worse by dividing the country in two, leading to a civil war. In 1922, the "Irish Free State" (later the Republic of Ireland) became independent, while Northern Ireland stayed part of the United Kingdom.

For the next 75 years, all of the sectarian violence has been over the 6 counties of Northern Ireland.  In 1998, the Good Friday accord offered a measure of self-rule to Northern Ireland, allowing unionists and nationalists to share government, greatly diminishing the level of violence.  (Recently, however, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army has been planting bombs under police cars, killing a young policeman just a few months ago.)

So it is onto this stage that Queen Elizabeth has stepped, being the first English monarch to visit Ireland in 100 years.  The estimated cost for security for the four day visit is £26 million (US $42 million), with up to 8,000 security officers attending.  In addition, she is visiting some of the most poignant national symbols of Ireland, including laying a wreath for soldiers who died fighting for independence, and Croke Park stadium.where, in 1920, British forces fired into the crowd, killing 14 spectators and players.

Personally, I find it inspiring, not for the historic overtones, the conciliatory gestures, or the idea that two countries can overcome their past and forge a new relationship.  I find it inspiring that an 85-year-old woman would put herself in harm's way for the sake of her country.  As a symbol, as a representative, and as an ambassador for Great Britain and the world, I think she ranks up there with the finest statesmen in history.  Long may she reign.