Queen Elizabeth II dies

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594436#Comment_119594436

I imagine whoever comes after Charles will strip down the trappings even more and further deformalise the monarchy. It'll probably be a short reign for him.

The matter whether there's a monarchy or not in GB is entirely up to them, not for us or anyone else to judge. There's monarchies all over the world but this one is the only one people here get pissy about.

mohawk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119593955#Comment_119593955

Agreed totally. Some of the opinions on social media are mad.

Although it was the British Monarchy that started the plantations and colonisation of this island what relevance does it actually have today. It was quite a few centuries ago and the British Monarchy has had zero power for a couple centuries at this stage.

The trend to judge people based on their ancestors actions back in a time where morals and values were completely different to modern western values is just bizarre.

The world went through centuries and centuries of a variety of cultures establishing empires. All those empires left a lasting impact long after they collapsed. Unfortunately, war and violence appear to be a part of humanity.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594471#Comment_119594471

Speak for yourself I get pissy about all of them.

StrawbsM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594448#Comment_119594448

It’s no fantasy. Kings and Queens have reigned for hundreds and hundreds of years. If it is ever put to a vote, I would vote for monarchs to remain as the head of state.

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594471#Comment_119594471

The actual monarch doesn't yield that power to do as they please whilst on the throne. They do as they are expected and advised by the state. The monarch is juts the figurehead. A person occupying the throne/crown. They are NOT the crown. Yes, they can have a say and influence, but it's not all powerful. So, Charles and those after him will simply toe the line.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594443#Comment_119594443

It's not photoshopped and that is a different photo.

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594495#Comment_119594495

Did you mean the one where a lad is holding a sign with ’No foreign games’ as he was wearing a football shirt?

Was reading about the international coverage there this morning. Many here think Ireland is somehow alone in its response to this…even suggesting that our reaction should be the same as the death of a Japanese head of state (ie. nothing). That we’ve somehow gone down a west Brit rabbit hole. Frankly, that’s bollocks

the fact is that France, Germany, USA, Australia, probably many others, interrupted tv schedules with live coverage from the Palace. Is the front page of newspapers literally everywhere. She was a much bigger global figure than the queen of the UK. And she far transcended any childish and immature animosity toward the Brits

It’s clear from headlines (for example in Spain, El Mundo headline is “the Greatest Queen in History”, in Italy Corriere della Serra is “forever Queen”), that she represented a dignity and class that has largely disappeared from political classes everywhere, and was the last link to what is perceived as a better time. I think that’s why people are feeling an underlying sadness. One of the only remaining internationally respected figures has passed, at a time when everything is going to sh1t

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594480#Comment_119594480

Good for you. Use that rage. Good lad.

20silkcut

As an institution of soft power the monarchy is very valuable to Britain.

As a tourist attraction it would be better if the monarchy was gone and people could visit the inside of all those palaces rather than standing outside looking at people on balcony’s.

Personally I have found it interesting in the past to while away a few hours on Wikipedia etc looking up the history and family tree aspect of the British monarchy but then I have a natural curiosity for tracing and loathe the fact that such comprehensive information is not readily available like that for people that I actually know in reality. If it was I would never be on boards.ie that’s for sure.

pjordan

Just thinking this morning how much a part of peoples lives (even in this country) that Queen Elizabeth was even with our conflicting emotions about her. My late grand aunt was forced to emigrate to England in the 1920's when my grandfather brought his new wife into the home place. She ended up running and eventually as landlady of a pub in the Liverpool docks from which she made a considerable fortune, which helped sustain my mother and her siblings during the really lean times of the 1940's and into the 50's in the West of Ireland.

During her visits home (in a chaueffer driven Daimler) my grand aunt and her daughter brought colour articles and publications about the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret which my mother and her sister devoured enthusatically in an an Ireland pretty devoid of colour or glamour at the time. Accordingly my mother had great affection and respect for the late Queen and I respect that

I think her 2011 visit here did a great deal to rehabilitate her image and affection in the eyes of a great many Irish people, myself included.

So as a mother, grandmother and great grandmother of not only a family but a grieving nation I say may she RIP. Ní fheicfimid A leithéid arís

skallywag

20silkcut > As a tourist attraction it would be better if the monarchy was gone and people could visit the inside of all those palaces rather than standing outside looking at people on balcony’s.

I can see it moving ultimately in that direction, with the serving monarch living in one of the Royal cottages, while the palaces are opened to the public.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119593955#Comment_119593955

That's not quite true. The sovereign in the UK gets consulted before laws are even drafted. Consequently, she had carve outs from employment, environmental and taxation legislation.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594523#Comment_119594523

It's not rage I'm just politically anti monarchy.

It's a personally reasonable stanch and not to be confused with the lads blaming Elizabeth for the troubles or whatever.

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594448#Comment_119594448

Shes not a tourist attraction, and when she was alive she wasnt one either because then you could have bought a ticket to see her.

The royal assets are tourist attractions, and royal family or not they would still be tourist attractions in the same way that bunratty, versailles, sintra, krakow, st.petersburg to name a few are now tourist attractions.

This often used argument that the english royal family are a tourist attraction in their own right just doesnt stack up as justification for the millions in tax money they take from the ordinary person

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594566#Comment_119594566

Buckingham palace has been open to the public for almost 30 years

skallywag

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594580#Comment_119594580

They might may be 'consulted' but that may be more of a courtesy than anything else. The Queen never failed to give consent to any proposed legislation when it was requested by parliament.

skallywag

Fr Tod Umptious > Buckingham palace has been open to the public for almost 30 years

My meaning is that all Royals completely vacate all of the palaces.

facehugger99

The Queen was a far superior head of State than some of the clowns we have elected as President - Including the current one.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594565#Comment_119594565

Part of our Irish identity over the last 100 years and indeed for centuries past, was defined by our hate of the British as opposed to celebrating and conserving what it was to be Irish - the Queens visit for me, along with obviously The Good Friday Agreement was a powerful symbolism as a reminder that we’re no longer enemies and that working together makes both countries better off.

Be right back

...

bnt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594429#Comment_119594429

They are questioning it. They’ve been questioning it for hundreds of years. They had multiple civil wars over questions such as the monarch’s role vs. Parliament, the place of religion in State, and more. These questions are largely settled by now, and people generally aren’t worked up about them any more, but don’t confuse that for unthinking loyalty.

The straw-manning going on here is nuts. 60 million people are robots, doffing their caps to royalty? Just look at the laughs people everywhere are having at Harry & Meghan, or Prince Andrew. The Royal Family’s place in UK society is conditional on them behaving themselves, and now that QE2 is gone, the pressure on them will only increase.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594580#Comment_119594580

it makes me chuckle when someone says “that’s not quite true” and then post something that isn’t actually true.

Crown approval (which isn’t actually the monarch) is required when legislation affects Crown prerogatives. The carve outs are not to benefit the king or queen, but the crown.

skallywag

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594635#Comment_119594635

Can you provide some examples?

Are you saying that the Queen had the power to veto legislation that did not 'suit' the monarchy, and ever, even once, acted on that?

ArthurDayne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594471#Comment_119594471

True, though I think the reasons people get pissy in Ireland about the English monarchy (or rather, the gushing deference to it in British and global media) are understandable.

This is entirely my own take but from what I've seen, the monarchy and more specifically the Queen herself (being the monarch who, more or less, was there from the moment that British power began to rapidly decline) provided a kind of symbolic crutch for the idea of British strength — the pageantry and history a living link to a more glorious imperial past and the particular global fascination with the English monarchy a reinforcement of British exceptionalism. It made people feel like glorious old England was still a reality in a world where its power had become second rate and the country had transformed immeasurably in the 20th century.

I think a lot of Irish people also see that link to the past in the monarchy, only quite naturally that past is viewed with greater distaste. The concepts of nobility, title, divine right and supremacy — these are all terms which underlined the subjugation of Ireland and the Irish people in history. So yeah, I think it's understandable that Irish people get irritated by the fawning and gushing and romanticism attached to what the Crown represents.

I'm not ignorant to the fact though that Elizabeth herself also did become a kind of symbolic granny of the nation in times of huge change, so there is that too.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594582#Comment_119594582

Unless you yourself are british you don't have a dog in that fight. It's all of their business and none of yours.

mumo3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119591877#Comment_119591877

What's seldom is wonderful 😂

Cumhachtach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119593950#Comment_119593950

Mickey Kelly! Genius. A man to get things done!

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119594759#Comment_119594759

A great man for thinking outside the parallelogram.

Eggs For Dinner

It's sad that they British Royal Family appear to be living rent free in the minds of Irish poeple. I'm very much on the side of a republc rather than a monarchy. If it's important to British, let them express their grief. It's part of the conditioning they are reared to, very much like our previous deference to the Catholic Church. It's instilled from early childhood

A lot of Irish people express the same level of grief when a Pope kicks his clogs and it can be argued that his organisation is responsible for more Irish deaths than the Queen's organisation over the last 70 years