Monaco

Casino of Monte Carlo reflected in the fountain

For a small and rocky mini-state essentially clinging to a cliff on the coast of the French Riviera there are few places more fabled than The Principality of Monaco and its neighbourhood of Monte Carlo which contains the Casino. Ruled by the Grimaldi family for over 700 years with a 20 year interruption for the French Revolution and occupied by the Italians and then the Germans in WW11 this is a place which has survived against the odds. Famously described by Somerset Maugham as “a sunny place for shady people” this is where the man went to “break the bank at the Casino of Monte Carlo”, where the various car rallies ending in Monte Carlo gave us the expression “Monte Carlo or Bust!” and which is struggling to cast off its image as a refuge for hot money.




Blingmobiles outside the Casino

It is easy to dismiss Monte Carlo as just a tax haven and an overpriced millionaire's posing ground, but there is far more to this compelling city than its wealthy reputation suggests. For a start it enjoys a spectacular setting as part of Monaco, a tiny principality smaller than London's Hyde Park that clings spectacularly to the rocky shores of the Mediterranean. Monaco is the second-smallest independent state in the world. It is a playground for tourists and a haven for the wealthy, the former drawn by its climate and the beauty of its setting and the latter by its advantageous tax regime. The country - a constitutional monarchy - is surrounded on three sides by France and occupies just less than two square kilometres (0.75 sq mile) of the Cote d'Azur, where the Alpes Maritimes meet the Mediterranean.






The law courts

Along the coast from Nice and just euro 3.40 on a rather lovely double decker train with superb sea views you come to the 2nd smallest country in the world, la Principauté de Monaco. Known for its Casino and its district of Monte Carlo it is a byword for wealth as it has no personal taxes. The personal fiefdom of the Grimaldi family for over 700 years it is still there largely because the Grimaldi’s were related to the Bonaparte’s so Napoleon left them alone. Before the Grimaldis It had a long history, Monaco's name comes from the 6th century BC nearby Phocaean Greek colony, referred to by the Ligurians as Monoikos, from the Greek "μόνοικος", "single house." According to an ancient myth, Hercules passed through the Monaco area and turned away the previous gods. As a result, a temple was constructed there, the temple of Hercules Monoikos. Because the only temple of this area was the "House" of Hercules, the city was called Monoikos.




The underground railway station which connects Monaco to Nice, Cannes, Ventemiglia in Italy and directly to Paris


Marble lined subway, with connecting lifts and escalators, from the station

At the city's spiritual heart is Monaco-Ville where the Place du Palais houses the grand palace that the legendary Grimaldi family still hold so dear. Their turbulent history, awash with glamour, tragedy and drama, colours Monte Carlo and only helps add to its mystique. It is here on “The Rock” - Rocher de Monaco - is the Prince’s Palace guarded by 110 strong uniformed carabineers. Inside it has a baroque air with somewhat fabulous frescoes and contents. At the centre is the formal courtyard where Prince Albert II of Monaco, 53, will marry Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock, 33, on July 2. Prince Albert said he wanted to host more friends, family and heads of state than the Saint Nicholas Cathedral - where his parents married - could hold, hence the ceremony in the courtyard.




Princes' Palace


Statue of François Grimaldi, "il Malizia" ("the Cunning"), disguised as a monk with a sword under his frock before the Prince's Palace of Monaco.

Further down the “Rock” through the narrow atmospheric streets and consecrated in 1875, Saint Nicholas Cathedral is a special place for Monegasques. It was where Princess Grace married Prince Rainier as well as where they have both been buried. The Grimaldi family have buried their family here for centuries and the tombs are beautiful. The area around it is the original town built on the “Rock” to defend against raiders and corsairs from the Barbary Coast across the Mediterranean in North Africa.


Saint Nicholas Cathedral


Cary Grant and Grace Kelly above Monaco in Hitchcock's "To catch a thief" - Filmed on the Riviera it led to her meeting Prince Rainier


Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco

The Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium, whose grandiose facade rises spectacularly out of the sea, houses a world-renowned collection of marine fauna and interactive exhibits. Other museums include the Museum of Napoleonic Souvenirs and Collection of the Palace's Historic Archives, which exhibits thousands of objects relating to the First Empire (Napoleon I); the Wax Museum of the Princes of Monaco; and the Monte Carlo Story, a multivision show about Monaco's history.



Below the palace the skyline is more Manhattan than Mediterranean as Europe's movers and shakers scramble to snatch a precious piece of real estate and ridiculously expensive yachts cram the marinas. The good news is that a taste of Monte Carlo living is not just reserved for those with seven digits in their euro accounts as there are public parks and jogging tracks that can be enjoyed for free and alongside some of Europe's most expensive hotels and restaurants there are some cheaper, almost good value, options.


Monaco Ville



The Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Monte Carlo Rally may be the city's two most famous events, glitzy extravaganzas that seem to sum up the spirit of flash and showy Monte Carlo, but beneath the hype there is real substance supporting the style with a lively cultural scene and layers of history well worth exploring.


Café de Paris

The Grand Prix (the only one run on streets) took place this past weekend. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigious automobile races in the world, alongside the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (informally known as the Triple Crown of Motorsport). The circuit has been called "an exceptional location of glamour and prestige." The race is held on a narrow course laid out in the streets of Monaco, with many elevation changes and tight corners as well as a tunnel, making it one of the most demanding tracks in Formula One. In spite of the relatively low average speeds, it is a dangerous place to race.






Grand Prix Circuit

The first race in 1929, was organised by Anthony Noghès under the auspices of the "Automobile Club de Monaco", and was won by William Grover-Williams driving a Bugatti. The event was part of the pre-Second World War European Championship and was included in the first Formula One World Championship in 1950. There is no Formula One circuit like Monaco anywhere else in the world. The track winds its way between the buildings of Monte Carlo and is so slow the cars will get up to 250 kph just once. The average speed is by far the slowest of any circuit. The track is 3.5 kilometres shorter than Spa Francorchamps but the cars will take just 30 seconds less to cover the distance. In fact, the pace at Monaco is so slow that the Grand Prix will only cover 260km as opposed to the 300km run everywhere else. After cars leave the start line they veer right up a big climb towards the world famous casino. From there they start heading back down the hill towards the harbour where the track runs alongside the water before looping back onto the pit straight. It is easily one of the most picturesque circuits and is a photographers dream. The circuit is incredibly narrow and spectators can get closer to the cars than any other racetrack.


Go on a hop on / hop off "Grand Tour" in a rather natty open top bus for 17 euros

When we were there on the Saturday before the 2011 Grand Prix it was the day they open the circuit to the public to drive on before closing it for the final preparations for the qualifying laps and race by the F1 cars. So we sat in the Café de Paris by the Casino nursing an iced coffee (euro 7.50) whilst watching an eclectic selection of serious automobile bling and vintage cars and their equally interesting owners parade around the circuit. The terrace of the cafe is a poser’s paradise but at a price. The three gents at the next table had a large lager and two large weissbiers and their bill came to Euros 41.50 – which seemed fair enough as they were German!


>



The Café de Paris, the Casino and indeed most things of note in Monaco are owned by the Société des Bains de Mer, which has in turn the Principality as its main shareholder. Whilst the Hotel de Paris gets the publicity for its position on Casino Square an even grander slice of the Belle Époque the Hotel Hermitage. It has a wonderful winter garden built by Gustav Eiffel’s firm and the adjacent Les Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo which offer a wonderfully relaxed spa experience. Indeed if you can afford to go there in the first place your life is probably wonderfully relaxed already! Despite its prices it is not an intimidating place to be and you can take your time there. The large terrace overlooks the main port, and as you lie back on one of the sun-loungers, looking at the stunning yachts in the deep-blue Mediterranean Sea it is hard not to feel seduced by the Monte Carlo way of life.


Harbour de Fontvielle

We saw Prince Albert but what touched me most were the Monaco and Irish flags outside the Princess Grace Irish Library. For Albert’s mother was the actress Grace Kelly, daughter of an Irish immigrant to America “Black” Jack Kelly of Philadelphia. She tragically died in a car accident in 1982. I was in Chicago at the time and remember her death was receiving wall-to-wall coverage on the channels in the United States. In the modern era “star quality” is an overblown term but the beautiful Hollywood Actress who became Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco was undoubtedly a star. Her memory is everywhere in Monaco from the beautiful rose garden a bereft Prince Ranier planted in her memory to the “Princess Grace Trail” which has photos of her at 25 points in Monaco illustrating her life there.


Grace Kelly's son Prince Albert inaugurating the “Princess Grace Trail” which consist of 25 photo's of Princess Grace

Her son Prince Albert already has children from two previous relationships – but under Monaco’s constitution neither can take the throne because they are ‘love children’. Only 'direct and legitimate' descendants born within marriage are allowed to rule the tiny Mediterranean tax-haven. The last time Monaco celebrated a wedding of its ruling prince was in 1956, when Albert’s father Rainier married Grace Kelly, bringing a huge dose of glamour to the tiny Mediterranean principality. The palace and Monaco's tourist board have joined forces to orchestrate the wedding of the 53-year-old perennial bachelor Prince Albert to Ms. Wittstock, a South African swimming champ, hoping it will rekindle memories of Monaco's glitzy heyday.



Billed as "the wedding of the century" by the tourist board, the religious ceremony will take place on July 2, 2011 on the carrera marble staircase in the palace courtyard, at Prince Albert's explicit request, rather than in the cathedral where Prince Rainier and Princess Grace got hitched. The palace gates will be left open so up to 3,500 visitors can follow the ceremony on giant screens in the palace square. More screens broadcasting the nuptials will be set up throughout the city, which will get a two-day public holiday for the celebrations.


A relic of Saint Devote, Patron Saint of Monaco

People think the rich and famous flock to Monaco for the tax breaks but it is more complex than that. Mainly they have already made (and paid taxes) on their money before they get there. Monaco certainly gives them exemption from inheritance taxes but it also gives them security, privacy, a sophisticated financial infrastructure and a good lifestyle. Also, it is not isolated, Paris is 6 hours by train, Italy 20 minutes and the rather beautiful Nice Cote d’Azur Airport connects efficiently to most points including direct flights to New York. So the conditions applying to the Carte de Séjour which allows non-Monegasque to be resident are strict and the entry costs significant. You must prove who you are and that you have no criminal record. You must have Euros 2 million deposited in a Monaco bank account and you must show you are renting or own the property in Monaco you are staying in. A four bedroom apartment here would cost upwards of Euros 10 million or 17,000 Euros a month to rent. To be comfortable applying you really need to be c. 20 million Euros and up.


Should I leave my millions here or ask my friend Fred for advice?

Many also have yachts in one of the harbours although many more have to keep them elsewhere as berths are coveted and joining the YCM (Yacht Club of Monaco) is not easy as you need to be sponsored by two existing members and be approved by a board headed by Prince Albert which meets twice a year. The Prince’s word is final as a previous member, Aristotle Onassis, found to his cost when he was expelled by Prince Rainer not just from the YCM but from the Principality. The yachts in Port Hercule are jokingly referred to by locals as the “Olympic Flame”, because they never go out! The largest at 147 metres is Prince Abdul Aziz the yacht of the King of Saudi Arabia; it has not left the port in over four years.


A yellow submarine outside The Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium

Security is an impressive feature with Monaco having one policeman for every hundred inhabitants, a 24-hour video surveillance system covering the entire Principality and in the entrance halls of the vast majority of apartment blocks, a transmission system worthy of the best armies in the world, the possibility of blocking all access points to the Principality in a matter of minutes. Not forgetting surveillance teams inside the Casino, all gambling establishments and hotels. The rule instigated by Prince Rainier is simple:"Safety in Monaco must be 100%". And they are not far from it. It should be said that the orders given to the 400 policeman who are trained intensively for almost 2 years are extremely strict: anything that might disrupt harmony is forbidden; they practiced zero-tolerance before it had a name! There are no on the spot fines in Monaco as that would tolerate law breaking. The ever courteous Police have a polite word and if that doesn’t work arrest you or instantly deport you. To the Monegasque it is about respect for Monaco and for each other, simple.


Monaco Ville - an owner driving a 40 year old Bentley into a wood paneled car lift in a baroque mansion

There is no doubting Monaco’s uniqueness and indeed the ingenuity in making it the extraordinary place it has become today. It is stitched together on the side of the cliff face of La Turbie with flyovers, tunnels, marble lined subways and public escalators and lifts and with around 20% of its land area reclaimed from the sea. On this craggy base it has also expanded upwards with a 49 storey apartment block being completed next year. With an area of 1.98 km2 (0.76 sq mi) with a population of 35,986 as of 2011, Monaco boasts the world's highest GDP nominal per capita at $215,163 and is one of the most densely populated country in the world. But there is another side for 26,000 of the population are native Monegasque who take real pride that they through resourcefulness and initiative have created a silk purse out of a sows ear of a rocky barren foreshore in a Principality which lost 95% of its land and its economic basis when Menton and Roquebrune seceded in 1861. So here we have the paradox, a non member of the EU which uses the Euro, an independent nation state which is defended by France and the most densely populated country in the world which oozes glamour and wealth. The Grimaldis and the Monegasques have created a special place apart from the rest of the world; you have to see the fabled enclave for yourself.

Also see this on the villas on the promontory of Cap Martin which overlooks Monaco;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/12/villa-torre-clementina-roquebrune-cap.html

And this on E-1027 the unique villa designed by the Irish Designer Eileen Grey on the Sentier Littoral, the costal footpath between Monaco and Roquebrune which inspired Le Corbusier.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/e-1027-roquebrune-cap-martin.html


Port Hercule

There is none as Irish as Barry Obama?

In Ollie's Pub, Moneygall, Co. Offaly

Well Obama, came, saw and conquered in Ireland last weekend. The first American President to come to Ireland was John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963. His reception was rapturous both as the first Irish American President and first Catholic President of the United States. Since then 5 more Presidents have visited Ireland. Four of them have claimed Irish roots, each of them came on whistle-stop tours full of photo-ops for the folks back home, each of them came the year before an election and, while we must give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt, none of them made a second trip.

Clinton and Regan had fairly obvious Irish roots but it may surprise you to know that Richard Nixon was also of Irish descent from the Quaker Milhous family from Co. Kildare. Indeed 16 of the 43 Presidents of the United States have been of Irish descent but it may also surprise you that the majority were of Ulster –Scots background. They were Andrew Jackson, James Knox Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.



So Barack made the pilgrimage to one of his ancestral homelands and the fact that Kenya is still waiting may reflect the small size of the Kenyan vote in America – over 40 million Americans claim Irish descent. So on Monday 23rd May 2011 the birthplace of the president's great-great-great-grandfather celebrated its brief moment of glory. A hundred flags of Ireland and the United States were raised this afternoon on the only street in Moneygall, Co. Offaly.

Unlike the Kenyan father he hardly knew Barack Obama’s Irish descent is on his remarkable mother, Ann Dunham’s side of the family. He is descended six generations on from Falmouth Kearney who was born about 1830 in Moneygall, Ireland and died 21 March 1878. He immigrated to the U.S. on the ship Marmion on 20 March 1850, along with his sister Margaret Cleary and her husband, William. Moneygall today is a small Sraidbhaile (Street village in Gaelic or one horse town in American) in Co. Offaly and like so many of the impoverished inhabitants of the time they were fleeing the famine or as it is called in Gaelic, An Gorta Mór – The Great Hunger.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/gorta-mor-irelands-great-hunger.html

Two years after he settled in the US, Falmouth married Charlotte Holloway. In 1860 they were living in Deerfield, Ohio; the 1870 census has them in Tipton County, Indiana. Charlotte Kearney died in 1877, followed by her husband a little over a year later. They left three sons, and five daughters. One of those girls, Mary Anne, had a grandson called Stanley Armour Dunham. His daughter gave birth in August 1961 to a boy called Barack Hussein Obama.

Canon Stephen Neill from Cloughjordan, who carried out the initial research into President Barack Obama's links with Moneygall, was on hand for the flag raising ceremony and was no doubt gratified at both the visit and how the President introduced himself later when he made a speech in College Green in the centre of Dublin. "My name is Barack Obama, of the Moneygall Obamas and I've come home to find the apostrophe we lost somewhere along the way," he said.


Moneygall, Co. Offaly - centre of the world for 90 minutes

The Stars and Stripes flew beside the Irish flag where the President was met by huge cheers of "Obama, Obama" – on the same spot where President Bill Clinton wooed onlookers in 1995. It was good to see Barry O’Bama deliver his speech in front of the original Irish Parliament Building. It should be the future Irish Parliament building; maybe a bankrupt bank will sell it cheaply?

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/irish-parliament-building.html

In the speech Barack Obama last night drew upon the memory of John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton to deliver a powerful message of determination and hope. Capping a momentous day with an address to a crowd of 40,000 in Dublin, he said Ireland's best days are still to come. Speaking of the ties between Ireland and the United States, he said he had "come home".


Barack and Michelle Obama in College Green, Dublin

However, his visit was cut short when he flew on to London the same day to avoid an ash cloud from the latest Icelandic volcano eruption. There was genuine warmth and spontaneity in his speech in Dublin even if the introductory speech by the Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny slightly betrayed the fact that his Irish host was more used to making speeches from the backs of trucks in Co. Mayo, which he represents in the Irish Parliament.


Obama (with a toilet plunger!) in the 2003 Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade - He joked (?) during his speech in Ireland that they were so marginalised by the organisers that they were last in the parade, just ahead of the roadsweepers cleaning up

There is a strange irony that Barack Obama was coming to Ireland to claim his Irish roots so he would look less foreign in the eyes of America. And whilst his speech was infectious and appreciated by the home crowd it was not aimed at them. It was the first hustings for Barack Obama’s 2012 election campaign and this time Barack won’t need Joe Biden with him to connect with the Irish vote.

Mr and Mrs Queen visit Ireland

Mr and Mrs Queen

The Queen of England starts her historic trip to the Republic of Ireland today and becomes the first British monarch to make the visit in 100 years. Relations between Britain and Ireland were transformed by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 which began to heal some of the divisions after centuries of distrust.

I, for one, welcome this visit and the message it gives that we in Britain and Ireland are two mature independent states who can engage in normal relations without having the impossible burden of a torturous and fraught history restricting our every move. As a Republican living in England I find myself relatively relaxed about the British Monarchy. First and foremost it is a Constitutional Monarchy which provides continuity and a sense of National occasion, witness the recent Royal Wedding.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/04/ones-first-wedding.html

Secondly, if you discount the nauseating snobbery of entry to the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, much of the snobbery and class patronage around the Monarchy has disappeared. So the Monarchy weighs somewhat lightly on the corpus of the UK and the Queen and Prince Philip are greatly admired as a couple who have discharged their duty to the country without fault. Governments have to enjoy a consensus of the people they represent. The British consensus is overwhelmingly that they prefer the historical continuity, dignity and presence of the Monarchy to represent their country and provide the bedrock of their Constitution. It is ultimately their call so who am I to disagree? This does not make me a monarchist but a relaxed Republican living in a fairly non-intrusive constitutional monarchy.



Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Princess Anne have all visited Ireland in a private capacity and have been welcomed. The Queen as a person is widely admired but she enjoys particular respect because of the example of her mother. Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, was like her daughter a great follower of the turf and a regular racegoer at Cheltenham where she always made a particular point of talking to Irish punters, trainers and jockeys. Every St. Patricks Day, without fail, until the last year of her life she made a point of presenting shamrock to the Irish Guards, one of the four Guards foot regiments which protect the Soverign.

The British Royal Family has been personally touched by the fascism at the heart of the IRA’s murderous campaign to bomb those who disagree with them into a “United Ireland.” There was a widespread sense of shame in Ireland when Lord Mountbatten was killed by a bomb in August 1979 on his small pleasure boat in Sligo Bay, a vicious murder which also killed two young boys, Nicholas Knatchbull, 14, and Paul Maxwell, 15, a local employed as a boat boy, and the Dowager Lady Brabourne, 83, who died the day after the attack. What bravery it took Thomas McMahon and his co-conspirators to carry out this massacre of innocents on what I remember as a beautiful summer’s day?


Classiebawn Castle


Lord Mountbatten's funeral

Lord Mountbatten was of course the softest of targets. His wife’s family had owned Classiebawn castle and when Mountbatten sold it to Hugh Tunney he rented it back every August and holidayed there with his extended family. The local police kept watch on Classiebawn Castle for the one month a year Lord Mountbatten spent there. But his boat was left unguarded in the public dock in Mullaghmore where it was moored.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/05/death-of-brian-keenan.html

This was an “imperialist” who had dismantled Britain’s imperial empire, who was a good friend to Ireland and sympathised with the aspiration to Irish unity. He even used to insist on travelling on the Irish car ferry company B & I where he was well known to the crew who were working class stock from the docklands of Dublin. Mountbatten, as a former naval officer, used to go on the bridge and chat easily to the crew the way old salt’s do. These were “hard men” from Dublin’s docklands and they would not hear a bad word said about Mountbatten. Prince Charles’s first trip to Ireland to Ireland was to the same Casement Airbase the Queen arrived at to collect Lord Mountbatten’s body for burial. Mountbatten was such an arch Imperialist that the most xenophobic of countries, Burma, declared a week’s official mourning.

What happened the next St Patrick’s Day and at the Cheltenham race meeting the year after Lord Louis Mountbatten's murder? The Queen Mum as always presented shamrock to the Irish Guards and at Cheltenham made even more of a point of speaking to Irish race goers. Like her daughter she was made of stern stuff. When the Queen’s grandson, Prince William, got married recently he wore the dress uniform of the Irish Guards.


Casement Aerodrome

The Queen’s itinerary includes gestures of reconciliation including a wreath-laying ceremony at a Garden of Remembrance for “those who died in the cause of Irish freedom”, and a visit to Croke Park stadium, where British troops opened fire at a Gaelic football match in 1920, killing 14 people, the original Bloody Sunday.

Even the air base where the Queen will land is a reminder of past troubles, as it is formally known as Casement Aerodrome, after Sir Roger Casement, a diplomat who was hanged for treason in 1916 after arranging for Germany to ship arms to Irish Republicans. However his civic achievements are often forgotten – Sir Roger led the enquiries which exposed the horrors of the Belgian Congo and the exploitation of rubber plantation workers on the Putumayo River in the Amazon.


Dublin Castle

The State Dinner for The Queen on Wednesday night will be held in Dublin Castle situated in the heart of historic Dublin. The city gets its name from the Dubh Linn or Black Pool located on the site of the castle's gardens and coach house. Founded in 1204 by King John of England, it was completed in 1230. On 16 January 1922, Michael Collins arrived in the Upper Yard and received the handover of the Castle from the last Lord Lieutenant FitzAlan on behalf of the new Irish government.



Let me at this point tell the story of a gentleman of my acquaintance known as Paddy “Mob Law” O’Connor. I made Paddy’s acquaintance late in his life when he did some decorating work for me and I asked about his unusual nick name “Mob Law.” Turned out Paddy was in the IRA in the 1950’s when newsreels of Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation were being shown in Irish Cinema’s. Paddy and the “lads”, being “diehard’s” raided the cinemas to stop the Irish people collaborating by watching these scandalous newsreels of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. In one cinema an indignant women stood up and challenged these self appointed gunmen shouting at them “what law gives you the right to do this?” to which Paddy shouted back “Mob Law.” No doubt the rump of the rump will try to enforce mob law over the next few before going back to concentrating on their dole and drug deals. Such is the “Little Irelander” mentality which went with the thought control, censororship, tariff barriers and economic stagnation which meant for many years Ireland’s greatest exports were cattle and people, both exported on the hoof.


The Guinness Air Bar where one will have one's first pint of Uncle Arthur?


Farmleigh House where Mr and Mrs Queen are staying

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/01/lady-miranda.html

There is a distinction made by Irish People between the “Crown” in whose name Ireland was ruled and the Royal Family. Indeed the shrill accusations of the rump of rump Republicanism that the Queen is responsible for the actions of “Crown Forces” is about as logical as blaming Barrack Obama as Commander in Chief for the Vietnam War. Indeed, the most vicious military campaign in Ireland was by a Republican called Oliver Cromwell but as he failed on his PR he is not hailed as the father of Irish Republicanism. The institution of the monarchy, because of its association with British military endeavour in Ireland, as distinct from the British people, came to represent for unionists, a touchstone of their loyalty to the United Kingdom but for nationalists, an emblem of unwelcome intervention.



Hostile references to it were presented in the context of historic claims of British monarchy to involvement and control of Irish affairs and a desire to coax the Irish out of their perceived irrational faith (Catholicism) and political allegiances, stretching back to the 12th Century and involving occupation, plantation, war and sectarian strife at various stages.

The Queen’s Grandfather George V was the last British Monarch to visit Ireland in 1911 but “all changed, changed utterly” with World War I which remade Ireland as it did most of Europe and the Middle East. One faction supported John Redmond and his call to fight to secure Home Rule (a degree of self government within the British Empire) and was named the "National Volunteers", the other supported Eoin McNeill and retained the name the "Irish Volunteers". Few could have prophesised how the two Ireland’s would diverge over the next four years.



John Redmond’s call to enlist was heeded by the majority of Irish men who fought for Home Rule and “the defence of small nations” such as Belgium and by extension Ireland, and in the course of the war it is estimated of the 700,000 British military deaths 50,000 were Irish. There are two unique features of the Irish death toll. Firstly, unlike in Britain, there was never conscription in Ireland so every Irish soldier was a volunteer. Secondly, there is no category of “Irish” in the British war records so the number is estimated from the deaths in Irish regiments but also Irish Volunteers, who enrolled in English, Welsh and Scottish regiments. It is notable that proportionately this death toll is as high if not higher than in Britain.

Those who supported Eoin McNeill and the Irish Volunteers formed the nucleus of the 1916 Easter Rising against British Rule, the first major blow by a subject nation against “The Empire on which the sun never sets” and the prelude to Irish Independence being achieved in 1922. This was not independence for all of Ireland as six out of nine counties of the province of Ulster retained the Union with Britain as “Northern Ireland”.

By 1918 with the end of the Great War and the General Election two Ireland’s had emerged. The general election of 1918 was the first (because of the war) since 1910 and the first (because of the Representation of the People Act) where non property owners and women (albeit, aged 30 or over) could vote and is seen as a key defining moment in modern Irish history. With the electorate increasing from 700,000 to two million in Ireland it saw the overwhelming defeat of the moderate nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), which had dominated the Irish political landscape since the 1880’s, and a landslide victory for the radical Sinn Fein party, which had never previously enjoyed such significant electoral success but which now won a decisive majority of 73 out of 105 seats in Ireland. The aftermath of the elections saw the convention of an extra-legal parliament, now known as the First Dail, by the elected Sinn Fein candidates, and the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence.


"We serve neither King nor Kaiser."



By 1922 the Irish Free State was independent and those who had “fought for England” were lambasted as traitors and their sacrifice was largely ignored by the new Irish nation which saw 500,000 people emigrate in the first 5 years of independence. These were a mixture of “loyalists” who did not identify with the “Free State” but also anti-treaty republicans who were on the losing side in the bitter Civil War which followed independence. In Ulster the unnatural partition was reinforced by a Unionist state which practiced a brutal sectarianism on the unwilling nationalists caught within its borders and where the economy of the border areas was destroyed by “Imperial Custom Posts” and cities such as Derry and Newry being cut off from their natural hinterland and declining. In “Ulster” the undoubted bravery and sacrifice of the Ulster regiments was celebrated as a blood sacrifice which proclaimed their loyalty to Britain and their right to union with the “mainland.” Thus the war and its commemoration afterwards served to reinforce and deepen the partition of Ireland and the divisions between the two Irish identities of Nationalism and Unionism.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/towards-somme-personal-journey.html

In Irish towns there are still “British Legion” houses provided for ex-soldiers and their families and in the decades of poverty and economic stagnation many Irish families were quietly grateful for the “War Pensions” they received. Ireland was neutral during the Second World War but many served in the British forces and many also worked in England both to survive and help the war effort including my Grandfather and two uncles who travelled on British Legion travel warrants and worked for the electronics firm Lucas in Birmingham during the war whilst living in a company dormitory. My father at the age of ten and his family on the other hand came in the other direction as refugees from the devastating blitz in Coventry.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/moonlight-sonata_14.html

As part of the process of reconciliation in Ireland the Irish Dead of the world wars are now commemorated at a service attended by the President and the Government and this issue which has divided in the past has helped make the distance between Belfast and Dublin shorter and contribute to the process of reconciliation on the island of Ireland.

In 2007 I met the President of Ireland, Professor Mary McAleese, whose ambition was to have the Queen visit at The Longford Lecture that year on “Changing History.” The President warned that the Northern Ireland Executive s faced a huge task in eliminating the "embedded culture of sectarianism." She added: "We are in fact right at the very start of the most exciting chapter ever in the history of the island of Ireland." She said the development has helped the country to "look the past in the face" and approach the future with fresh confidence. "For those of us who have grown up through the Troubles, the reduction in negativity and the growing generosity of spirit has been little short of miraculous."


President of Ireland, Professor Mary McAleese

Her address was interspersed with humour mentioning the historian’s assessment about the difference between our nations that “The Irish never forget and the English never remember.” She commented another academic who suggested that the current developments meant the end of Irish History with “we would be so lucky” and recalled the Russian Proverb “The way ahead is clear, it is the past which is in dispute.” She emphasised the positive and continuing changes in an Ireland which has moved on from its long tradition of emigration to embrace immigration with 12% of the population born outside Ireland and members of the Irish Diaspora returning.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/longford-lecture-2007-changing-history.html

At the question and answer session at the end the journalist Mary Kenny asked her was she aware that the last British Monarch to visit Ireland was George V. Indeed she was said Mary McAleese as she slept in his bedroom every night! She said then that she hoped that The Queen could visit during her term of office. The President’s House, Áras an Uachtaráin, where the Queen was formally welcomed today was formerly the Vice Regal Lodge which was extended for George V’s visit.


Áras an Uachtaráin

I wrote at the time; “Like Frank Longford, an English politician and an Irish patriot, she focussed us on two nations and peoples who have gone from emphasising difference to celebrating what we have in common and building a better future together whilst not ignoring what makes us special. In doing this she has helped us all to move to a better place.”

Or as Bertie Ahern said (am I really quoting him?) in May 2007, when he was the first Irish Taoiseach to address the Houses of Parliament:

"No two nations and no two peoples have closer ties of history and geography and of family and friendship…we are now in a new era of agreement… solidarity has made us stronger. Reconciliation has brought us closer."

So congratulations to Mary McAleese in rounding off her two Presidential terms in fine style with the Queen’s visit. And thanks and gratitude to Mr and Mrs Queen for having the courage to visit when many would have advised against it. Mrs Queen is 85 and Mr Queen will be 90 in July. Respect to them both, they are made of stern stuff.

For all the unrepresentative bleatings of the "die-hards" desperately looking for their last opportunity of some attention this trip required great courage and seals normalisation of relations between two countries and people who, for all their fraught history, have far more in common than they have apart. The future is the only reality.