If tributes to Elizabeth II have multiplied around the world since the announcement of her death on Thursday, some in Northern Ireland – which is part of the United Kingdom – have made their difference heard, as in the Republic of Ireland. Relations between the British monarchy and these territories remain tense after years of conflict.
In a video released by France info, we see in particular dozens of cars in Derry (Northern Ireland’s second city), parading, honking a few minutes after the announcement of his death after 70 years of reign. The crowd also chanted during a concert that same night “Fuck the queen”, says the derry diary.
Elisabeth II’s cousin killed in IRA attack
These scenes can be explained in particular by the conflict between London and Northern Ireland nationalists from the 1960s to 1997, affecting the queen personally. One of her cousins had died in 1979 in a bomb attack perpetrated by the armed group IRA.
Revolutionary for its supporters, this organization was considered terrorist across the Channel and Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, fiercely opposed it.
These images are even more symbolic as Derry is infamous for Bloody Sunday. On January 30, 1972, when Elizabeth II had been queen for 19 years, the British army brutally suppressed a civil rights demonstration and killed 14 independence activists.
“Lizzy in a Box”
Engaged in the reconciliation process between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, officially registered in 1998 by a peace treaty, Elizabeth II had only been there three times in her life. Her first visit, when she was not yet queen, was in 1945 with her father, King George V, before going there in 2014 and 2016.
Reactions to the announcement of the monarch’s death were just as strong in neighboring Ireland, independent since 1922, after two years of war with London.
That same night, Irish fans sang songs during a Europa League football match, evoking “Lizzy in a box” or “Lizzy in a box”. “Hard not to see a reference to the coffin” by Isabel 2 stresses, the Irish times.
2011 High Voltage visit to Dublin
The Queen had visited Dublin for a highly symbolic visit in 2011, the first for a British monarch since the partition between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in 1921. If this visit had paved the way for the normalization of relations, it had performed under high tension.
A “working” explosive device had been discovered the day before his trip, prompting the government to deploy more than 8,000 police on the ground. The republican parties, in favor of unification with Northern Ireland, had denounced an “insulting visit by the British occupier”.
On the occasion of the 10 days of national mourning, Carlos III will travel to Belfast on Tuesday. The monarch is even more expected there as the queen had to cancel a visit planned for 2021 for health reasons. No trip to Dublin has been announced yet.
Source: BFM TV
