Sir, – The column by Stephen Collins, “Jubilee a good time to recognise queen’s role in peace process<NO1>’<NO>” (Opinion, June 3rd), should be compulsory reading for all. She cares, her father cared, Prince Charles cares.
Collins notes that during the State visit of President Michael D Higgins to Britain in 2014, Martin McGuinness publicly told the queen he appreciated the role she had played in peacemaking in Ireland and she, in turn, complimented him on the leadership role he had given in bringing about peace<NO1>’<NO>.
As someone who got an F in history in the junior cert, and whose Catholic ex-RAF father and Catholic Belfast mother never saw eye to eye on the Troubles at the kitchen table, it’s very interesting to read that George V “was concerned at ‘the aggressive tone’ Lloyd George was using in reply to de Valera’s ‘verbal contortions’ to avoid a commitment to start negotiations in August 1922″. The letter was amended.
So I will toast Queen Elizabeth, who moved so many of us to tears here in Ireland when she visited in 2011.
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– Yours, etc,
JOAN REIDY,
Malahide, Co Dublin.