THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO IRELAND

Great Britain's (well, England's, really) relationship with Ireland makes that between Denmark and Germany look like a mild tiff. Starting in the 12th century, about a hundred years after the Norman Conquest, mainlanders viewed Ireland as a source of land and riches to be exploited, and its people as not much more than primitive savages. Differences between natives and interlopers were given a further twist after the Reformation, when much of Ulster was settled by Protestants from Scotland. There have been countless rebellions and uprisings, systematic repression, the banning of the Gælic language, the exclusion of Catholics from public office, and so on and so forth. No wonder the Irish wanted to get rid of us.

The great Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone spent much of the second half of the nineteenth century trying to organise Home Rule (i.e. semi-independence) for Ireland. However, his many attempts all failed on the rock of Ulster Unionism, which refused to accept a severing of ties to the mainland, and used its votes in the Westminster Parliament to block all proposals for devolution. Eventually things exploded in the rebellion of 1916 and consequent civil war, before the Irish Free State was born in 1922. This did not include the six counties of Ulster, which were partitioned off in 1920 to form part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the formal name for the country of which I am a citizen.

There was only one problem with that solution; it was not a solution. Anti-Catholic discrimination continued in the north; while many Irish supported the IRA, which was committed to booting the Brits out of the north by force and then uniting the whole island of Ireland. Decades of "the Troubles" cost many lives, but also confirmed that neither of the two tribes in the north could win. They have now reached an accomodation, and today rule the province jointly.

Which in turn paves the way for the Queen's state visit to Ireland, which started today. The last visit to Dublin by a British monarch was by the Queen's grandfather George V in 1911, before Ireland's independence, so the visit can genuinely be called historic. That is reflected in the list of places the Queen will visit. Today she laid a wreath in the Garden of Remembrance, which is dedicated to those who fought for independence. Tomorrow she will attend a ceremony to honour the 50,000 Irish soldiers who died in the First World War. Then she will make a visit to Croke Park, the home of Gælic sports, but also a place where 14 spectators were shot dead by British forces in 1920.

The sporting link is relevant in another way. Ever since the Gælic Athletic Association was founded in 1884, sport in Ireland has been run on an "all-Ireland" basis. So the Ireland rugby team includes players from Ulster; it is also the reason why athletes compete in the Olympic Games for Great Britain, not the United Kingdom. This community-wide organisation has held, despite the bitter sectarianism in virtually every other aspect of life over the past hundred years. Since the Queen is often at sporting events, and may well open the Olympic Games in London next year, she might reflect on that seeming paradox, as she steps out on the hallowed turf of Irish nationalism tomorrow.

Walter Blotscher