Post by earl on Sept 30, 2008 12:19:42 GMT
There is a long and bloody relationship between Ireland and the British crown, blighted in the popular imagination as it is by colonialism, the Famine, the republican War of Independence, a civil war fought over an oath to the King, and the tragedy of Northern Ireland.
But a new documentary that airs tonight on RTE 1 dares to ask if the Irish people deep down have a secret love of the British royal family.
Forbidden Love, the latest instalment in the Hidden History series, looks at the links between this country and the British royals from Victorian times until the present day, a post-peace process era when God Save the Queen can be safely played at Croke Park and a historic visit to the Republic by Queen Elizabeth II looks more and more likely.
The documentary starts off in 1900, with the last triumphant visit to Ireland of Queen Victoria, where she was given a rapturous reception, despite her reputation as 'the Famine Queen'. What's more, her successors, Edward VII and George V, also made visits up until 1911 and, despite this being a time when Irish nationalism was on the rise, records show that thousands of Irish people made applications to attend the functions at Dublin Castle held by these living embodiments of "800 years of oppression".
From 1916, through the violent origins of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, and to the 1930s when the anti-Treaty Eamon de Valera took power, the influence of the British crown was diminished bit by bit, until the declaration of the Republic by the first inter-party government in 1949 formally ended any association with the British monarchy.
However, remnants of colonial life continued to exist here, and do so to this day. A good example is post office boxes, many of which still bear symbols of various monarchs, but which have simply been painted from the royal red to nationalist green.
In addition to that, the Irish fascination with the royal family never seems to have ceased, even if that interest was forced underground (the film details how monarchy fans had to watch Queen Elizabeth's 1953 coronation under a cloak of secrecy).
Since then, the Irish public, like everyone else, has continued to view the royals as the ultimate soap opera clan, or even the first reality TV family, complete with sexual scandals, hidden children, secrets, lies, affairs, adultery, espionage, and even (some believe) murder.
The royals had officially become celebrities, and as the 1980s dawned, they injected some highly dysfunctional, but much-needed, glamour into that grim, grey decade.
The undoubted star of the show was, of course, Diana, the Princess of Wales. She gave the royals a more human image, as well as providing the world with a modern-day fairytale to believe in. Indeed, Diana's marriage to Prince Charles in 1981, which took place against the backdrop of the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland, topped the television ratings here, causing an 8pc surge in the national electricity grid as some 180,000 television sets tuned in to watch.
Conversely, upon the death of Diana in 1997, Ireland seemed to get swept up in the same tide of excessive grief chronicled in the Oscar-winning movie The Queen, where even the flags on top of the GPO and Dail Eireann were lowered to half mast as a mark of respect.
Even today, Prince William's on-off girlfriend Kate Middleton commands acres of tabloid space in this country, while a movie like The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley as an ancestor of Diana, can pull huge audiences into cinemas.
So what is the exact nature of our relationship with the royal family? After all of the struggle, is it possible that we have always kept a place in our hearts for the monarchs who once ruled us?
"I think whatever interest there is in the monarchy here is purely human interest in a family story, with no political bent," explains royal historian and Irish Independent journalist Mary Kenny, who will publish a new book entitled Crown and Shamrock: Love and Hate Between Ireland and the British Monarchy early next year.
"As a good example of that, I've heard hardened Provos in Belfast talking about whether Princess Diana was treated fairly by the royal family! The monarchy has become a part of the whole vocabulary of celebrity, but in terms of governmental and constitutional structures, Ireland has become a very sovereign country."
Be that as it may, Forbidden Love argues that the new Irish state merely swapped one form of monarchy for another by granting so much power and deference to the mighty Catholic Church. Historians agree that, ceremonially at least, the Church more than filled the vacuum left behind by the royals in post-independence Ireland.
"The Eucharistic Congress of 1932 mimicked a royal visit in every single respect," Kenny says. "The attendees arrived in Dun Laoghaire to the exact same fanfare as King George's visit, and the procession into Dublin followed the same route.
"There was such a hunger in Ireland for ceremony and ritual. The Church held some exquisite processions. For instance, thousands of women would dress in white and walk down O'Connell St for Corpus Christi.
"Today, celebrity culture has filled the void left behind by the Church. Instead of exquisite benedictions, you now have Heat magazine."
Of course, the ultimate test of Ireland's relationship with the British royals will be if -- or when -- Queen Elizabeth visits the Republic for the first time in her half-century reign.
President Mary McAleese has repeatedly said that she would welcome such a move, but it's still a risky prospect, especially considering the riots that ensued in Dublin city centre during the Love Ulster parade in February 2006.
"The obvious anxiety around any visit is that she might re-awaken old feelings of hostility," Kenny says. "The biggest problem would be the Union Jack, because it has a different kind of symbolism in Ireland than it has elsewhere. But the protocol officers were very tactful during Prince Charles' visit here in 1995. They flew the Welsh Standard instead, so I think there could be a way to get around it politically."
Kenny agrees with President McAleese that the timing is now right for a state visit. "I think it's important that Elizabeth comes here in her lifetime," she says.
"The queen has said several times that she wants to come, and even her official papers from 1956 show that she was fascinated by this country, saying that the horses here must be wonderful.
"I think it's been a failure of Cead Mile Failte frankly. Until that visit happens, there won't be that kind of historical closure. It would be even better if she could come to the Republic at the same time as Pope Benedict would come to Northern Ireland. That would be real closure, wouldn't it?"
Hidden History: Forbidden Love, RTE 1, tonight, 10.15pm.
- Declan Cashin
But a new documentary that airs tonight on RTE 1 dares to ask if the Irish people deep down have a secret love of the British royal family.
Forbidden Love, the latest instalment in the Hidden History series, looks at the links between this country and the British royals from Victorian times until the present day, a post-peace process era when God Save the Queen can be safely played at Croke Park and a historic visit to the Republic by Queen Elizabeth II looks more and more likely.
The documentary starts off in 1900, with the last triumphant visit to Ireland of Queen Victoria, where she was given a rapturous reception, despite her reputation as 'the Famine Queen'. What's more, her successors, Edward VII and George V, also made visits up until 1911 and, despite this being a time when Irish nationalism was on the rise, records show that thousands of Irish people made applications to attend the functions at Dublin Castle held by these living embodiments of "800 years of oppression".
From 1916, through the violent origins of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, and to the 1930s when the anti-Treaty Eamon de Valera took power, the influence of the British crown was diminished bit by bit, until the declaration of the Republic by the first inter-party government in 1949 formally ended any association with the British monarchy.
However, remnants of colonial life continued to exist here, and do so to this day. A good example is post office boxes, many of which still bear symbols of various monarchs, but which have simply been painted from the royal red to nationalist green.
In addition to that, the Irish fascination with the royal family never seems to have ceased, even if that interest was forced underground (the film details how monarchy fans had to watch Queen Elizabeth's 1953 coronation under a cloak of secrecy).
Since then, the Irish public, like everyone else, has continued to view the royals as the ultimate soap opera clan, or even the first reality TV family, complete with sexual scandals, hidden children, secrets, lies, affairs, adultery, espionage, and even (some believe) murder.
The royals had officially become celebrities, and as the 1980s dawned, they injected some highly dysfunctional, but much-needed, glamour into that grim, grey decade.
The undoubted star of the show was, of course, Diana, the Princess of Wales. She gave the royals a more human image, as well as providing the world with a modern-day fairytale to believe in. Indeed, Diana's marriage to Prince Charles in 1981, which took place against the backdrop of the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland, topped the television ratings here, causing an 8pc surge in the national electricity grid as some 180,000 television sets tuned in to watch.
Conversely, upon the death of Diana in 1997, Ireland seemed to get swept up in the same tide of excessive grief chronicled in the Oscar-winning movie The Queen, where even the flags on top of the GPO and Dail Eireann were lowered to half mast as a mark of respect.
Even today, Prince William's on-off girlfriend Kate Middleton commands acres of tabloid space in this country, while a movie like The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley as an ancestor of Diana, can pull huge audiences into cinemas.
So what is the exact nature of our relationship with the royal family? After all of the struggle, is it possible that we have always kept a place in our hearts for the monarchs who once ruled us?
"I think whatever interest there is in the monarchy here is purely human interest in a family story, with no political bent," explains royal historian and Irish Independent journalist Mary Kenny, who will publish a new book entitled Crown and Shamrock: Love and Hate Between Ireland and the British Monarchy early next year.
"As a good example of that, I've heard hardened Provos in Belfast talking about whether Princess Diana was treated fairly by the royal family! The monarchy has become a part of the whole vocabulary of celebrity, but in terms of governmental and constitutional structures, Ireland has become a very sovereign country."
Be that as it may, Forbidden Love argues that the new Irish state merely swapped one form of monarchy for another by granting so much power and deference to the mighty Catholic Church. Historians agree that, ceremonially at least, the Church more than filled the vacuum left behind by the royals in post-independence Ireland.
"The Eucharistic Congress of 1932 mimicked a royal visit in every single respect," Kenny says. "The attendees arrived in Dun Laoghaire to the exact same fanfare as King George's visit, and the procession into Dublin followed the same route.
"There was such a hunger in Ireland for ceremony and ritual. The Church held some exquisite processions. For instance, thousands of women would dress in white and walk down O'Connell St for Corpus Christi.
"Today, celebrity culture has filled the void left behind by the Church. Instead of exquisite benedictions, you now have Heat magazine."
Of course, the ultimate test of Ireland's relationship with the British royals will be if -- or when -- Queen Elizabeth visits the Republic for the first time in her half-century reign.
President Mary McAleese has repeatedly said that she would welcome such a move, but it's still a risky prospect, especially considering the riots that ensued in Dublin city centre during the Love Ulster parade in February 2006.
"The obvious anxiety around any visit is that she might re-awaken old feelings of hostility," Kenny says. "The biggest problem would be the Union Jack, because it has a different kind of symbolism in Ireland than it has elsewhere. But the protocol officers were very tactful during Prince Charles' visit here in 1995. They flew the Welsh Standard instead, so I think there could be a way to get around it politically."
Kenny agrees with President McAleese that the timing is now right for a state visit. "I think it's important that Elizabeth comes here in her lifetime," she says.
"The queen has said several times that she wants to come, and even her official papers from 1956 show that she was fascinated by this country, saying that the horses here must be wonderful.
"I think it's been a failure of Cead Mile Failte frankly. Until that visit happens, there won't be that kind of historical closure. It would be even better if she could come to the Republic at the same time as Pope Benedict would come to Northern Ireland. That would be real closure, wouldn't it?"
Hidden History: Forbidden Love, RTE 1, tonight, 10.15pm.
- Declan Cashin