Sir, – What a wonderful photograph of Queen Elizabeth and Martin McGuinness shaking hands, with Peter Robinson and Prince Philip looking on, in Belfast (Breaking News, June 27th).
Wonderful as the handshake is as a milestone, of even greater significance is the happiness of all mentioned greeting and being photographed together. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Concerning the historic handshake; there is a neat, deft German word, salonfähig. It means “suitable for the drawing room”; may be allowed onto the carpet, passes muster, socially; is acceptable in society. If Nelson Mandela – who could have been shot for what he got up to – is salonfähig, then Martin McGuinness is also and at least in equal measure, salonfähig. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – A handshake between the Deputy First Minister and Queen Elizabeth at the Co-operation Ireland event in Belfast was rightly broadcast to the world. It marks an important step in the developing relations between these two islands.
It was, however, most unedifying to see the manner in which President Higgins was ignored by all but the Deputy First Minister during the brief video of the event. The President was there as Patron of Co-operation North, a role held jointly with the queen. He is also a head of state. It seemed that neither he nor anyone else had given any thought as to what precisely his role was at the event and consequently he was left to follow the entourage like a lost puppy.
I do hope his advisers, particularly those with responsibility for protocol, will never again allow our head of state be treated in such an offhand manner. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Thank God the queen was wearing gloves! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Two newspapers with long imperialist traditions, The Irish Times (June 26th) and the Times of June 27th, carried cartoons of a be-gloved Queen Elizabeth shaking hands with a bloody-handed Martin McGuinness.
What bloody nonsense is this? When McGuinness was a young child the queen’s agents were up to their necks in blood: in Kenya alone during the first eight years of her reign they hanged over 1,100 Africans after farcical trials.
All the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten such episodes. Perhaps Lady Macbeth’s failure to wash the bloodstains from her hands accounts for the tradition of later queens always wearing gloves in public. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The continuing march of Sinn Féin across the electoral landscape on both sides of the Border is a matter of great concern to many who recall their violent past and who fear a political future in which this past is conveniently forgotten or distorted in their favour. Yet you show no sign of reticence in giving further favourable publicity to them in your Editorial (“The handshake and the wider context”, June 26th).
While it is reasonable for you to say that the handshake “deserves the publicity it has attracted, however upsetting Sinn Féin’s political opponents find that to be”, it is the pre-publicity that is irksome to many. Sinn Féin wring their hands in public as they agonise over the handshake, then they slap themselves on the back for going ahead with it. For most ordinary people life is about shaking hands with people whether we like them or agree with them or not, this being merely common courtesy.
But I really despair when you try to equate Queen Elizabeth’s personal experience of having a relative murdered with Martin McGuinness having “his own personal and dark memories”. I am sure that many of your readers would shudder at the thought of what that man remembers doing, and ordering to be done, during his political and military career. – Yours, etc,