FROM THE ARCHIVES:The announcement that Queen Victoria was to visit Dublin in April 1900 sent loyalists into organisational overdrive and inspired this editorial, which contained more than a little wishful thinking. – JOE JOYCE
NOT IN Dublin alone, but throughout all the country, Her Majesty’s promised visit has caused a signal stir. The demonstration of loyal enthusiasm is universal, and it strikingly testified to the respect in which the personal qualities of the Queen are held.
Many volumes of history may be ransacked, yet no parallel will be found for such an exhibition of popular feeling as that which is in preparation. As has been shown in our columns, every loyal Board and body in Ireland has come forward to render honour to Her Majesty – all townships, every district represented by prominent citizens, all centres of local population entitled to speak upon behalf of the general well-affected sentiment of the community.
The outburst of loyalty is true and sincere, and it is in the first place evoked by that regard for Her Majesty which all of her subjects share throughout her Empire. There is no greater or nobler contemporary figure than that of the Queen. She has given her name to an epoch. She has ever stood by her people in good and evil days, and never has failed to assist and comfort them.
Her private sorrows have been heavy. But at no time has she forgotten the necessities of her subjects, and her word of consolation was never wanting in any time of public suffering, or at a moment of suddenly incident emergency. It cannot too emphatically be said that the Queen does not represent any political influence or party. Never during the course of her long reign has she identified herself with any section. She has ever kept herself aloof from all politically contentious matters, and she will be remembered in history as the most constitutional of English Sovereigns.
And, best of all, her people know that the Queen has ever been in touch with the hearts of her subjects. The greatest Lady in the Empire never disdained to enter the humblest cottage. She has wept with those who sorrowed, and rejoiced with the many in their days of gladness.
The Queen has witnessed many phases of life during her long career. The burden of State cares have borne heavily upon her. But that she has always maintained a courageous spirit her loyal subjects well know, and they never can forget those characteristics of head and heart which have most notably marked her glorious reign.
What Sovereign within memory was ever a grander ensample to her people? . . . In the history of the century, no Sovereign has ever been in more intimate relations with her people, and no Monarch on the Throne of England has more universally been loved. It is to Her Majesty as herself that all honest-hearted Irishmen desire to do honour, and it would ill-become a country which prides itself upon its hospitality if it failed now in any way to render three-fold honours to its guest, the Queen.
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