Miracles Happen Indeed

Something happened this week that I never thought would ever occur.

Queen Elizabeth II embarked on a four-day trip to Ireland, becoming the first British Monarch to visit there in a Hundred Years, since the reign of her grandfather, King George V.

The mere concept of Her Royal Highness touring a country where the anguish of The Troubles is still felt in some quarters boggles the mind.

Memories of the Croak Park Massacre, Bloody Sunday, the Black and Tans, wide-spread and intergenerational sectarian violence, and summary executions of the leaders of the Easter Rebellion are events embedded into Irish DNA.

From a British perspective, equally embittering, the murder of Lord Louis Mountbatten by the IRA was inexcusable. Montbatten was arguably England's greatest hero from World War II, the father of commando raids that crippled Nazi shipyard facilities. Later, Lord Louis became the chief British architect of India's and Pakistan's Independence and withdrawal from the British Empire.

Montbatten happened to be Elizabeth II's uncle.

The IRA also murdered scores of British soldiers who found themselves stationed in Northern Ireland at the height of the most-recent round of The Troubles -- and the Provisional IRA's bombed rail targets in London, acts which claimed scores of innocent lives.

None of these act -- and countless more -- endeared the English People to the Irish.

But the Madness had to stop ... and it did when Sinn Fein (always pereceived to be the political arm of the IRA) sat down with their Protestant counterparts in the late 1990s to agree to a Peace & Power-Sharing Agreement brokered by the brilliant former US Senator, George Mitchell.

If Stormont set this week's unprecedented and historic trip into motion, we thank you, Senator!

The significance of the Queen's visit cannot be underestimated.

Where English monarchs of the past went to Ireland as sovern conquerors, demanding of the Irish People outright loyalty and allegiance to to Crown, Elizabeth II arrived as a guest of the Irish government.

The irony of her royal jet landing at the Roger Casement Military Air Base just outside Dublin also cannot be overlooked: the British executed Roger Casement for high treason; he was hanged in 1916 for his role in the Easter Rebellion.

Be this as it may, I'm proud of the fact that the Irish are now willing and able to put aside their long-standing differences with the English and move beyond the pain of past injustice.

The way I see it, the Queen's visit has given the Irish what they sought all along over the years -- and by years, I mean back to the 17th Century.

From those days until these, Irishmen and Irishwomen wished only to be treated with all due respect, as equals to be left alone to pursue their unique concepts of freedom, destiny, dream, heritage, and national identity.

Queen Elizabeth's brief visit is a significant indication that Ireland has finally attained the respect it deserves.