Funny how some Irish Americans chose to have a deliberate blind spot for this kind of terrorism until America got a (not wanted) taste of it. Let's also not forget that these folks made common cause with not only the Islamic terrorists but with the Soviet bloc when the Cold War was still very much in the balance. I hope things go quietly as well, but I hope in the event someone attempts something else stupid, that the security services do shut them down, and in the case of those on the scene, I mean a permanent shut-down.
I agree.
All Garda leave is cancelled during the visit, and armed units are of course on duty.
British Secret Service are also armed.
I have not asked our family Garda where she will be, I know she can't tell me.
Outside Buckingham Palace this morning - the Irish Guards play "Danny Boy" :
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0517/media-2960051.html#Queen in green:
So far so good....no real problems although lots of anti-royal demonstrators making a lot of noise.
They are as you said entitled to their opinions, there is a healthy way and a stupid way to express them.
Your comments about the ""blind spot" before 9/11 when some Irish-Americans were funding such terrorism
reminds me of an incident before that terrible day.
Sinn Féin is the Political arm of the IRA, led by Gerry Adams.
He was a frequent visitor to the USA for fundraising events, usually in New York, Boston, Chicago...cities which have
many citizens descended from Irish immigrants. Ted Kennedy got Adams his Visa, other US politicians gave their support.
On one of his visits, he was making a rare appearance in Orlando at a fundraising lunch.
The cost was something like $250 per person. An American-Irish friend of mine asked me to go with her, I refused.
She tried again....."I hear he's an excellent speaker, come on, I'll pay for your ticket".
She thought the cost was my reason for not going.
I told her "Hitler was also a very persuasive speaker. I would not go across the street to hear Gerry Adams....I don't fund terrorism." She was stunned.
Gerry Adams was a big advocate of the "armed struggle" against Britain but had to change his ways
during the Peace Accord, otherwise his political aspirations would be over.
There are many YouTube clips which show the 2 faces of Gerry Adams, I won't give a link.
What really upset many Irish was the way in which the name of the original Irish Republican Army was hijacked.
The IRA that emerged from the Irish Republican Brotherhood of Michael Collins in 1916 fought the War of Independence.
They had a legitimate cause.....independence and freedom, just like the 13 Colonies under George Washington.
In fact the IRA was the foundation of the present Irish Military.
When the "Troubles" started in Northern Ireland in the mid-1960s the "Provisional IRA" emerged.
While the older IRA in Ulster had embraced non-violent civil agitation and peaceful demonstrations,
the new Provisional IRA was determined to wage "armed struggle" against British rule in Northern Ireland.
In 1997 Members of the Provisional IRA who disagreed with the cease fire and Peace accord then formed
the "Real" IRA. They were responsible for many terrorist acts, including a 500lb bomb in the middle of Omagh
killing 27 innocent people and wounding many more. A warning was given, but it sent people running
towards the bomb.
That atrocity was counter-productive....all Irish people were so horrified that the Peace process gained ground.
There will always be terrorists in the world, though why anyone would want to waste their precious
few years on earth killing others is hard for decent people to understand.
Queen Elizabeth II stood with the President of Ireland at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin this morning.
This place commemorates those who died fighting for Irish Freedom, and also those who died fighting
in the British forces in WWI.
The Queen was well aware of the significance as she lay a wreath there. This is reconciliation.
Now can't we all just get along....
and tackle those who want to wipe all of us out, whether Irish, British, Catholic, Protestant,
Coptic, Jewish or atheist? 