Prince Charles in The Model in Sligo this morning
“Relations between Britain and Ireland have changed hugely since my visits in 1995 and in 2002. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and its successors, have transformed, for the better, the political and security landscape across these islands.
Only last month my son Harry and I were with the President and Mrs Higgins and Mr Flanagan in Turkey, as we paid our respects to the soldiers who fought and died in the Gallipoli campaign.
Even by the dreadful standards of the First World War, the death toll and suffering were horrific. However, the bravery of the troops, on all sides, was extraordinary. Amongst them were over 10,000 Irishmen, colonel rangers, Royal Dublin Fusiliers and Royal Munster Fusiliers and innumerable others, fighting side by side.
Tragically, over three and a half thousand Irish soldiers were killed and many more wounded at Gallipoli. At the time, many Irish nationalists hoped that their participation in the First World War would bring together people of different traditions across these islands. Sadly, of course, it didn’t turn out that way.
But a hundred years later, in remembering the scale of the suffering and sacrifice of that generation, we are at last finding common ground. Working to end the conflict in Northern Ireland brought the two administrations in Dublin and London more closely together.
My mother, the Queen’s, state visit to Ireland four years ago, and the President’s return state visit last year, were further demonstrations of the historical change in our relationship. The success of those visits is clear evidence of the maturity of our relations which are now better than ever, based on mutual respect and friendly cooperation between two sovereign neighbours who share a huge amount in common.
We’ve shed our inhibitions about acknowledging the value that we bring to each other, as trading partners, as places to find work, as sporting rivals and as contributors to a lively exchange of ideas and culture that enriches everyone. After all, the Irish have made a unique and important contribution to Britain – a wonderful warmth of laughter, spontaneity and imagination. Neither Ireland nor Britain enjoys such a deep and broad engagement with any other country.
Our current blessed dear old friendship and cooperation is not, however, founded on pretending that the past did not happen. We all have regrets. As my mother said in Dublin Castle, with the benefit of historical hindsight, we can all see things which we wish would have been done differently or not at all.
I’m only too deeply aware of the long history of suffering which Ireland has endured not just in recent decades but over the course of its history. It is a history which I know has caused much pain and much resentment in a world of imperfect human beings where it is always too easy to over generalise and to attribute blame.
At the end of the day, however, we should never forget that our acquaintance has been long and we can turn that knowing into something new and creative. We need no longer be victims of our difficult history with each other.
But I’m glossing over the pain and the past. We can, I believe, integrate our history and memory in order to reinvest a subtle harvest of possibility. Imagination, after all, is the mother of possibility. Let us then endeavour to become subjects of our history and not its prisoners.
Ireland has had more than its fair share of turbulence and troubles. Those directly affected do not easily forget the pain. Recent years have shown us though, that healing is possible even when the heartache continues.
In August 1979, my much-loved great uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was killed alongside his young grandson and my godson Nicholas and his friend Paul Maxwell. And Nicholas’ grandmother the Dowager Lady Brabourne.
At the time I could not imagine how we would come to terms with the anguish of such a deep loss since, to me, Lord Mountbatten represented the grandfather I never had. So it seemed as if the foundations of all that we held dear in life had been torn apart irreparably.
Through this dreadful experience, though, I now understand, in a profound way the agonies borne by so many others in these islands of whatever faith, denomination or political tradition. Despite the tragedy of August 1979, the memories that Lord Mountbatten’s family have of Cassiebawn Castle and Mullaghmore, going right back to 1946, are of great happiness.
I look forward to seeing, at last the place that he and they so loved and to meeting its inhabitants. Many of them showed the most extraordinary outpouring of compassion and support to both Lord Mountbatten and and Paul Maxwell’s families in the aftermath of the bombing. Their loving kindness has done much to aid the healing process.
A number of us will gather at St Columba’s Church in Drumcliffe under Benbulben’s head for an ecumenical service of peace and reconciliation. The poet Yeats, who is of course buried at Drumcliffe, once wrote that I shall have some peace there – the peace comes dropping slow.
As a grandfather now myself, I pray that his words can apply to all those who have been so hurt and scarred by the troubles of the past. So that all of us, all of us, who inhabit these Atlantic islands may leave our grandchildren a legacy of lasting peace, forgiveness and friendship.”
Prince Charles this morning.
FIGHT!
(Pic: BBC)
Meanwhile…
from top: Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at the Model, Sligo; Prince Charles meets Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese at a Service for Peace and Reconciliation at St. Columba’s Church Drumcliff , Sligo
(DFA/Photocall Ireland)
“At the time, many Irish nationalists hoped that their participation in the First World War would bring together people of different traditions across these islands.”
Er….end British rule you mean, Charlie!
+ 1
Wrong – Go back to your history books. Irish politicians urged Irishmen to go and fight on the English side in WW1 hoping that their requests for self-determination would be heart more favorably once the war ended. Some of them were mature enough to realise that we would still have to get on with our neighbors on the mainland and hoped to start that relationship by fighting alongside our traditional enemy.
To say there was nothing much going on for the kids who joined up was an understatement anyway … but what was waiting for them (the killing fields) was much much worse.
Here, have a read, educate yourself and do not throw away the contribution of those men so lightly. End English rule Yes, their thinking processes were that dumbass.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0853236003
So you….eh… recommend ONE book you’ve read?
Give me a break.
You focused on ONE sentence of his entire speech.
Sorry I did not realise that you needed a whole bibliography instead of the one source that told the end to end story….but you don’t really need that do you. You made a cheap, knee-jerk, thoughtless crack and don’t like having it pointed out.
Just in case you were serious allow me to help:
John Redmond’s biography….
http://irishacademicpress.ie/product/john-redmond-the-national-leader/
Contains the text of several of his speeches in which he provided a context and a purpose for Irishmen to join the British army
The history of Irish units in the British army:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Regiments-Harris-R-G/dp/1885119623
Interviews with some of the men who joined the ranks and their motivation for doing so. Interestingly a lot of them who joined to learn how to better the British learned how to work with them instead
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/184342603X
What life was like for an Irish regiment at war working alongside the other soldiers in the British army…. those from England, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany (oh yes), the Falklands and the Carribean…
Casey – I don’t need to read any more Irish / European history than I already have.
The observation I was making on Charles’s speech was that he hinted that the Irish fought in the Great War in order to find peace among its people. Read it again – the fourth paragraph. That is incorrect. I believe he was deliberately hushing down Britain’s oppressing involvement in Irish affairs and preferred to talk of us as a divided nation at constant squabble with itself over its future.
Ah I see. you have now made up your mind what the subconscious meaning of one sentence in a speech indicates. Excellent.
Are you still using Windows 95? Cos you know once you have learned so much about computers, you should really stop as you clearly will know it all by that point.
You keep your knee jerk makee-upee theories about what someones subconscious intent was and I will listen to the words and judge them against what I know to be true in a historical context.
thanks John A. Murphy/ Eoghan Harris. You’ve one book to reference. Fair play.
Now I have given you 4
HoopJonottiAll the books you’ve given are well-known revisionist accounts that apologise for imperialism. Some neutral books would be good.
Ha ha ha. Tell me another one that proves you have read none of them.
That was totes hilarious.
What parts of what books are “revisionist” you loony troll? What part act as apologies for imperialism?
The parts written by a soldier in the trenches after leaving an Irish battalion in 1936?
The parts of Redmonds speeches which were reported in the newspapers of the day?
The parts recording the same story told man after man battalion after battalion?
The academically recognised and peer reviewed research that went into the WW1 research in another book?
Sure I am sure they all told the tales and gathered the evidence for their research in order to adhere to a revisionist conspiracy in order to facilitate an apologist agenda for imperialism.
There are no apologies in any of the books….. but then you would have to actually have read the books and be able to progress information to get that. Double whammy.
Great speach. Wheather he wrote it or not, he said it. RTE.ie have it up if you don’t fancy readin it all.
Can you see the weather forecast there too?
haha. Nice.
No it’s not, it’s dull… and grey
But enough about Chuck…..
Camilla?
A nice speech, certainly, if a bit retro-rose tinted (e.g. paddy participation in the great war being all about reconciliation on “these islands”), leaning to the personal and mawkish, which is understandable. Good to see some acknowledgement of the hurt the establishment he represents inflicted on Irish people. To be welcomed, though a bit less of the forelock tugging and standing in line with obsequious joined hands would be more becoming of our lot. It’s as if now that we don’t curtsy and grovel to bishops and cardinals any more we need a surrogate focus for simpering adulation. I mean, referring to a fellow mortal as “HRH” and calling him “sir”.
+2015
he cogged all that ‘collective imagination’ bit from the squee’s speech in tanland last year. still, good to see he was paying attention.
Maybe their writers use the same website.
there’s probably a template on the new version of microsoft word..
Less of the foreign feudalists please.
No, More of them….
“After all, the Irish have made a unique and important contribution to Britain – a wonderful warmth of laughter, spontaneity and imagination” … standard blarney and a pat on the head for the Micks.
” there’s a crowd says I’m alright
Say they like my turn of phrase
Bring me round to their parties
Like a dressed up monkey in a cage”
Fair play though, in fairness.
Grand speech.
Enough of the cynicism , take the man’s words for what they are – a further attempt to bring peace to these islands.
Great speech.
+ 1.
Agreed. We need to be far less cynical when any attempt to bring/keep peace on this Island is being made.
I’m lucky enough to be born at a time to never be directly affected by the troubles, but it only requires basic humanity (along with hearing stories from both sides) to know that it’s not something I would ever want to to see or go through.
rooster of a fighting stock
would you let a saxon cock
fly out upon an Irish rock
fly up and teach him manners
white is sick, grey is fled, now for black fitzwilliam’s head
we’ll send it over dripping red to queen liza and her ladies
fukn brilliant song.
+1
Fiach will do what Fiach will dare.
Would get a corpse going, that song.
He’s been asked repeatedly by the families of the victims of Bloody Sunday to make a statement of regret for what happened when he was head of the Parachute Regiment. He’s failed to do so. He’s patronising us all.
‘he doesn’t just mean cheesmakers, he’s referring to all manufacturers of dairy produce’.
Connaught Rangers rather than colonel rangers?
I quite like Charles, mainly as I feel sorry for him. At an age where all his mates are retiring, he’s waiting for his Mum to die to do the one job he trained for, which is pretty grim. Also when all his secret letters were released last week after a 10 year battle it turned out he was a like a slightly eccentric Uncle writing letters to the Ministers about badgers, catfish and making sure the troops had decent boots. The institution of the monarchy itself is obviously a load of shit but they do have some nice castles.
blah blah the fighting irish check
blah blah the irish are great craic check
blah blah this man shot my granddaddy check
Blah blah 800 years
Blah blah Sarsfield
Blah blah parachute regiment
Two world wars and one world cup
doo dah,
blah blah.
Are the Americans coming on in the second half?
I thought that wasn’t too bad now/rather good
I love the sound of his voice.
He has one of the best British accents.
I’d like him to have a proper lisp though …
Got a great reception at The Model from all ages from 9 to 90. He’ll be back in Sligo at the Races from 6pm onwards. Wayhay he’ll probably bet the Palace on No 6 in the 5th (mad for the geegees is Chuck).
I’d like to ask a few questions.
One: Where’s the fife? And two: Give me the fife.
No mention of dear grandaddy Dickie Mountbatten’s arrogance that lead to the Dieppe Raid fiasco in 1943…….
https://consortiumnews.com/2011/08/18/truth-still-a-casualty-at-dieppe/
Lose someone close in that “fiasco” did you?
I think he meant Connaught Rangers.
Good job it wasn’t Glasgow Rangers.
Or Connacht even.
Nice one casey
@jonotti et al – owned
Okay speech as far as I goes and I’m happy to have a productive, forward-looking relationship with Britain but a tiny part of me is irritated by the sentiment that we all suffered equally, overlooking the one-sidedness of the persecution.
Reminds me of Homer after screwing up- “Okay, Marge, things were said, mistakes were made. Let’s end this madness and get on with our lives”
Very foolish of us to allow ourselves to be invaded, so it’s only right the blame be shared.
+4,000,000
He came, he saw and he’s gone, it took almost 36 years to come to terms
with their own personal loss and admitt if they could turn back the pages of history
things would be done different or not at all, well in Sligo to day he could have
borrowed the words of Yeats and said quite simply….”I will arise and go”
and so will my country, he knows the game is up but he is a hostage to empire.
and at this stage unable to come terms with it, but the time will take a lot less
than 36 years
Incidently there needs to be an initiative by the government to aquire the Classie
Bawn Estate and divide it up, it would be a fitting recognition to the dispossed
and evicted people of 1847 who were sent on coffin ships to Canada, no mention
of them in the speech