McGuinness salutes the queen at royal banquet

Posted by Jim on April 10, 2014

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness this evening stood for the British
national anthem and toasted the “health and happiness” of the English
queen in the most symbolic gesture yet of his party’s support for the
status quo in the north of Ireland.

Mr McGuinness was attending a banquet at Windsor Castle in honour of
the 26 County President Michael D Higgins, the first official state
visit by an Irish head of state to the English capital.

The visit was described by government press officers in Dublin and
London as the “final step to normal relations” between the two states,
and follows the infamous visit by the English royals to Dublin in 2011.

The queen said that the “heightened relations” which followed that
visit had pleased her. “Even more pleasing, since then,” she said, “is
that we, the Irish and British, are becoming good and dependable
neighbours and better friends; finally shedding our inhibitions about
seeing the best in each other.”

Earlier today, President Higgins addressed the Westminster parliament
— another first for a 26 County President — before being driven in a
ceremonial carriage to the castle to prepare for the royal banquet.

But amid the tightly choreographed pageantry, it was the actions of
Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander and now Six County Deputy
First Minister, which proved the most controversial element.

McGuinness sat just 15 places away from the queen, close to the centre
of the 160-foot long table which seated all 160 guests.

His participation infuriated Irish republicans ahead of the anniversary
of the 1916 Easter Rising. His unexpected decision to toast the queen
— a gesture which Irish citizens have historically refused to join —
was described by traditionalists as “a gratuitous insult” to Ireland’s
patriot dead.

Socialists in Ireland and Britain have also pointed to the inequity of
highly paid government officials enjoying a sumptuous menu of
delicacies — Isle of Gigha Halibat and tournedos of Windsor estate
beef were among them — while welfare cuts have forced people into soup
kitchens or emigration.

In his speech, President Higgins made reference to the queen’s visit to
Ireland, in which she “admirably” did not “shy away from the shadows of
the past”.

He said: “Your gracious and genuine curiosity, your evident delight in
that visit, including its equine dimension, made it very easy for us to
express to you and, through you to the British people, the warmth of
neighbourly feelings.”

People had been “moved” by the Windsors’ “gestures of respect” at sites
of national historical significance in Ireland, he said. “These
memorable moments and these moving words merit our appreciation and,
even more, our reciprocity.”

As a sign of that ‘reciprocity’, officials in Dublin and London are
understood to be planning for Windsor to stand alongside President
Higgins during the centenary Commemorations of Easter 1916, as a
symbolic gesture of Anglo-Irish unity.

Whole endorsing McGuinness’s actions, Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams also
said minds should be on the need for political leaders to resolve “all
of the outstanding issues in the peace process.”

He said that peace needed to be “celebrated on the streets as well as
in the palaces and the big houses”.

The Irish Republican Socialist Party was more critical. It said that
“unlike other actions since 1998 this move cannot be spun as a
concession for the good of the peace.”

They said as “an active move” by Sinn Fein to “seek engagement with the
highest echelons of the British establishment whilst normalising and
copper-fastening the economic and physical occupation of the Island”.

The Republican Network for Unity said McGuinness’s actions were
“incompatible” with “even the basic ideals of Republicanism” and that
they had “given legitimacy” to “monarchy, privilege and the class
system”.

“In these times of austerity, rising poverty and enforced inequality
across Ireland, England and beyond; the hosting of a one-time
revolutionary leader in the residence of the British monarch represents
a victory for the enemies of freedom and working class struggles
everywhere,” they said.
“All progressive thinking people – including Sinn Fein members – will
be disheartened by this farcical decision. RNU shares their
sentiments.”