MEDIA:QUEEN ELIZABETH'S visit to Ireland is "one of the most important that she has made in all her long reign", the London Times said yesterday, saying the four-day occasion marks "the final reconciliation between two peoples after centuries of misunderstanding and resentment".
Though the British media had not given much coverage of the visit in advance, it dominated TV news schedules and newspaper coverage during the course of the day, particularly after the Queen’s visit to the Garden of Remembrance, described by Channel 4’s Gary Gibbons as “one of those ‘pinch yourself’ moments’.”
Saying it was “one of the most sensitive moments of the trip”, Gibbons wrote: “At the bottom of the sunken pool in the middle is a mosaic which includes images of broken weapons.”
Commenting on protests by dissident republicans, Gibbons said it “will provide an extraordinary counterpoint to the silence observed at the garden just now which was a very powerful moment”.
Reflecting on the huge security operation and the small crowds, he went on: “This clearly isn’t yet the time for a totally normal visit in which crowds are encouraged and walkabouts conducted but the first big moment of ceremony has passed without any difficulty and no mean amount of poignancy.”
In the Spectatormagazine, Peter Hoskin said "there is something incredibly resonant about the images of the Queen arriving in the Republic of Ireland: 'Queen Elizabeth II is making some kind of history today'."
The Daily Telegraph's, Ed West commented on the difference in the care offered to the Garden of Remembrance compared with the Islandbridge memorial to the Irish war-dead of the first and second World Wars. "One of them has been lovingly maintained over the past 40 years, the other left in such ruin that at one point it was lived in by Travellers. Guess which one is which? In terms of state spending on memorial maintenance per lives lost, an Irishman fighting against the Crown must be worth about 1,000 times an Irishman fighting in the British Army."
Noting republican anger about the Queen’s visit to the garden, he said: “Ironically, among all the Celtic-y images that adorn the memorial to Irish freedom fighters is an image of broken weapons thrown in a river, symbolising the end of hostilities – something Republicans seem unwilling to do.
“English people find this historical bitterness, and continual anger about Northern Ireland . . . strange.
“Most are far more interested in the money Britain handed over to rescue Ireland’s economy, and would be quite happy for the Irish president . . . to pay tribute to the six billion British pounds which were lost propping up the Irish economy . . .”
