The Queen, Fenians & Bombers...

Two historic events recently involving Her Maj.

The first was when, holding her nose and smiling politely, she shook the hand of the egregious Martin McGuiness.

Following on from the triumphant first-ever Royal Visit to the Republic of Ireland, this event hopefully draws a line under 500 years of catastrophic relations between the UK and Ireland.

Reading Fergal Keane’s ‘Story of Ireland’, the recurring theme seems to be one of institutionalised stupidity on the part of the British. The Act of Union in particular was the wrong solution for the wrong problem. Its underlying raison d’etre was to pacify Ireland and prevent it from providing a soft under-belly for attacks by Napoleon. It had the opposite effect. It led to armed civilian resistance, the Fenians and the IRA.

We had the potato famine which could not be laid at the door of the British, but when it happened they looked on with callous indifference. Then came the clearances and the depopulation of Ireland.

The executions after the 1916 uprising reverberate to this day. From only a political point-of-view, this was nothing short of cretinous.

And so to the IRA campaigns from the late 60’s onwards. Most of the killings were of civilians and most of them were Irish. The campaign was carried on with mindless barbarity and stupidity. Did they really think that they could bomb an entire population of Protestant Ulstermen into the Catholic republic? Did they believe their cause would be advanced by scattering the body parts of women and children over Omagh?  Was murdering an elderly relative of the Queen and two small boys or slaughtering the Irish horses of the Horse Guards likely to advance the cause of ‘a nation once again’?

Everybody did it all wrong for centuries. Now is the time for reconciliation and forgiveness on both sides. One of the few sensible things Dave has done is give the Irish a helping hand when the economy collapsed through no fault of the Government. And we can only admire the doughty way they have tackled the problem at great sacrifice, unlike the whining Greeks.

The second was the unveiling of the Bomber Command memorial.

Bomber Command lost 60% of its aircrews during WW2, the highest attrition rate of any service except U-boat crews.

And yet there was no recognition of this sacrifice; no campaign medal; no memorial until now. Why?

It seems that the High-and-Mighty had a fit of conscience about area bombing and about Dresden in particular. Never mind that these were all political decisions; no guilt could be laid at the door of the young men who carried out their duties to tragic effect on both sides. The bleeding hearts decided to air-brush the bombing campaign out of history. ‘Bomber’ Harris went quietly back to Africa without the peerage granted to all other commanders.

Our politicians have a shocking record for their treatment of our servicemen and their allies.

The Poles were not allowed to take part in the Victory Parade for fear of offending Stalin. They has served Britain with great gallantry. Their fighter pilots notched up the greatest number of ‘kills’ in the Battle of Britain. They finally took Monte Casino in one of the bloodiest battles of the Italian campaign. But they were not allowed to march with their comrades in case a mass-murderer and megalomaniac got upset. The politicians also sent back to almost certain death  thousands of Cossacks and other ex-servicemen from Iron Curtain countries.

At last the Queen has been able to preside over an event that was long overdue.