‘I have signed my own death warrant’; so (allegedly) did Michael Collins spake after he had signed The Treaty in London in 1921.
Collins’s support for the Anglo-Irish Treaty which both agreed to the partition of the country and required elected representatives in the new state to promise to be faithful to His Majesty King George V (the Queen’s grandfather) was to lead to civil war and Collins’s own untimely death on the 22 August 1922.
Irish attitudes to the Queen’s visit are largely supportive but also tempered with awareness of the often violent and destructive nature of our relationship with the British Crown.
The Queen visits Collins’s Rebel County on Friday and the ditty below arguably captures the Country’s mood. Perhaps it is time to move on from the past. But not to forget it?
Click here for Her Majesty in Corcaigh.
Sammy Mc Nally is a Prod fictional character bestowed on us by James Young who accidentally kills his pal, who not suprisingly, given that it is Belfast, is also a Prod. The friend is sent to the after life place (Heaven/Hell) and finds it is an exact replica of Belfast – with one important difference – it is run entirely by Fenians and with the pope himself in residence in Stormo and it seems no sign of the Belgian quarefellah D’Hondt anywhere. To be continued…
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