And so far I am inclined to agree, but at the same time breath a sigh of relief that she is gone back to England.
I will not focus too much on the particulars of her visit, but I will comment that small touches such as wearing green upon leaving the plane as well as starting off her key speech with a greeting spoken in Gaelige went a LONG way to endearing the Irish population to her. Her visits were cordial, projected disturbances and protests minimal and non violent (mostly), and hopefully Sinn Fein's misjudging of the public mood over this will upset any progress they make down south.
Now with that said, lets get the elephant out of the room. That elephant being the painfully obvious west-briton sentiment in the Irish media, to which Her Majesty was the darling of the hour.
Do not misunderstand me, I am greatful the visit went so well AND that the media tried pushing the positive effects of the visit (the resulting boom in tourism that this will likely cause plus finally having good stories about Ireland being told in foreign media outlets, confirmed by reports from irish Embassies worldwide. Thank God, nothing good about Ireland being said by foreign newsgroups for near 3 years now), but what disgusted me was their attitude towards their urging, and how aggressive it was. They kept pushing the angle that this was a historic visit (it was), but their slavish devotion to this as well as pushing the 'cultural links with Great Britain' (of which there are innumerable, but not something you want to remind the public about if you plan to make us keen on the British monarchy as the same historical poison taints our view of it and pushing the link of monarchy with Britain wont make the modern Irishman more keen on it) reeked of west-britonism, and it did nothing to convince Irishmen that royalism and monarchism really isn't a 'British' thing. Which does not help the Irish Monarchist cause in any light.
Good relations with Britain is necessary economically and perhaps socially (a great many Irish families have members working across the Irish sea) but the west britonism in the media would have us stop speaking Irish for economic integration and 'cultural exchange' by destroying whats left of Irish culture to improve those relations. Which I will never stand for.
One historian brought before the newscaster at the beginning of the visit commentated on how 'there has always been an undercurrent of royalism in Ireland' of which that is 100% true, but then went on to immediately associate that royalism with britain by using the last visit of a British Monarch to Ireland as her one and only example. Really!? Then what of the jacobites? the war of the three kingdoms? the flight of the earls? The blatant monarchism in Irish Catholicism, the actions of Irish Monarchists on the continent both before and after the flight, THE FACT THAT THE MAJORITY OF THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN IRELAND BEFORE THE FIRST WORLD WAR WAS DOMINATED BY IRISH DUAL MONARCHISTS AND NOT BY BLOODY REPUBLICANS!?
Oh and never mind the brief reinstatement of the Council of the Chiefs of the Name officially recognised by the Republican Government before a Scandal forced their dissolution, or how every Irishman is descended from ancient Kings, why those crest must be mere decoration, right? No, sure, it only is relevant if we link royalism with the British Royal family and nothing else.
Its not as if any other royal family has links to Ire-oh wait, there was that one Sovereign Prince fellow wasn't there?
To hell with it, I will do it if they would not. I will start digging up resources and Focus on Irish men, both Nationalists and before the rise of Irish nationalism, who were monarchist, royalists or otherwise disassociated with Britain and associated with Monarchism. If only to, if futilely, dispel the myth of Monarchism being a 'British' thing.
