The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will crown a new monarch for the first time in 70 years on May 6. The upcoming coronation will formally recognize Charles III as the King of Scotland, Wales, England and 15 other nations, stretching from Belize in Central America to the tiny island of Tuvalu in the middle of the Pacific. He will also become the Head of State in Northern Ireland.
This is a sensitive matter to many of the inhabitants of this island next door. The place of the British monarchy in Ireland has been a matter of dispute since (at least) 1135 A.D., when Normans from Britain first landed in Ireland.
Things have changed dramatically for the United Kingdom in the decades since the coronation liturgy was last performed. The empire that Elizabeth II initially oversaw has largely dissolved. The United Kingdom joined and then subsequently left the European Union. And Northern Ireland endured a generation-long civil war followed by an ongoing generation of almost-peace.
Sidestepping reservations about being associated with the pomp and ceremony of a very anti-republican spectacle, Sinn Féin hopes to demonstrate diplomatic gravitas and a mature capacity to lead all Ireland.
When Charles’s mother acceded to the throne in 1953, not a single representative from the Irish Republic attended the ceremony. The 26 counties in the south of the island had overcome centuries of colonial rule to win independence in 1922. A constitutional republic in Ireland was established in 1949.
During her life, Elizabeth II always understood her realm to include parts of Ireland, as indicated by the presence of embroidered shamrocks in her coronation gown. But while her coming to the throne was welcomed by the still staunchly unionist Northern Ireland back then, it was pointedly ignored by the republican government in Dublin.
In fact, there was widespread cultural hostility in Ireland to the new queen. Film reels of the event were not shown in Irish cinemas, and one newspaper had its offices attacked for daring to display a photograph of Elizabeth II. In the early days of the Republic, keen to distance Ireland from its colonized past, people wanted no connection whatsoever with the British monarchy.
But that was 1953; in 2023, the times they are changing indeed. Among the attendees for this momentous affair will be a most surprising figure: Michelle O’Neill, the leader of Northern Irish nationalists (who wish to see a unified Ireland, free from British rule). Her party, Sinn Féin, has been understood to have been the political arm of the Irish Republican Army during the Northern Irish civil war.
Sinn Féin understands itself as the true heir to the movement that won Irish independence, and its party members look forward to a day when the entire island is united as one republic. Sinn Féin is thus the strangest of political bedfellows with the British monarchy. In the not-too-distant past, in fact, Irish republicans were targeting members of the royal family for assassination.
What explains such a dramatic change of course? Political analysts in Ireland believe Sinn Féin, currently the strongest party in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, is using the coronation to demonstrate that it is ready to move into a new phase of its reunification project.
By sidestepping reservations individual party members must have about being associated with the pomp and ceremony of a very anti-republican spectacle, Sinn Féin hopes to demonstrate diplomatic gravitas and a mature capacity to lead all Ireland. By attending the coronation, its leaders once again signal that they have left violence behind.
When Charles’s mother acceded to the throne in 1953, not a single representative from the Irish Republic attended the ceremony.
The party hopes to show moderate Northern Irish voters who are increasingly alienated by the old binaries of “Nationalist/Catholic/Irish” and “Unionist/Protestant/British” that Sinn Féin can represent them. Party leaders also have an eye on the next general election in the Republic of Ireland, seeking to communicate to the voters in the south that Sinn Féin—led in the Republic by Mary Lou McDonald—is going to transition seamlessly from political opposition to government management.
The insecurity that marked the young state of Ireland is now long gone. Elizabeth II made her first official visit to the Republic in 2011 at the invitation of the Irish president, Mary McAleese. The queen charmed the Irish public then with her obvious delight during the visit and wowed a reception at Dublin Castle when she began her speech in Irish.
Subsequent royal visits followed, and at her death last year, there were few outbursts of nationalistic gloating, but there were expressions of a genuine appreciation for her longstanding commitment to the public good.
Not everybody in Ireland, of course, had been so forgiving of monarchal representations. The visit in 2011 was officially boycotted by Sinn Féin, the largest Irish nationalist party in Northern Ireland and likely to become the governing party when an election is next held in the Republic of Ireland.
But even then, even among the hard cases in Sinn Féin, some defied the party line. Michael “Mickey” Browne, the Sinn Féin mayor of the rural Tipperary town of Cashel, flouted his hierarchy to welcome the British sovereign. In response to questions about his actions, he asserted that “sticking your head in the sand is no good.”
How influential his minor act of rebellion was is hard to say, but within a year, Sinn Féin’s position had changed.
Sinn Féin also has an eye on the next general election in the Republic of Ireland, seeking to communicate that it is going to transition seamlessly from political opposition to government management.
In 2012, Sinn Féin’s then-leader, the late Martin McGuinness, met Elizabeth II and shook her hand. He explained that he understood this as a gesture to “show my respect to the Unionist people of the North and to extend, through Queen Elizabeth, the hand of friendship, peace and reconciliation.”
That process of rapprochement is set to be extended by Ms. O’Neill through her surprise willingness to attend the coronation this week. In her announcement, Ms O’Neill framed the acceptance of the invite as an opportunity to “respect our differing and equally legitimate aspirations, and focus on the opportunities the next decade will bring.”
She will not be alone. Michael D. Higgins, the president of the Irish Republic, will also attend, as will the Taoiseach, the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar. The royal family, for its part, has joined in making important symbolic gestures, by including the Irish language in the service.
These are important steps toward reconciliation. To get closer to a more reliable, lasting peace, more would be welcome.
For over a century, members from Northern Ireland’s Sinn Féin elected to the U.K. Parliament, which convenes under the authority of the British monarch, have refused to take their seats in defiance of that expression of loyalty. If their position is based on a refusal to “validate British sovereignty over the island of Ireland,” why are they attending the very event that justifies the new sovereign?
This is the question posed by Peadar Toibín, a member of the parliament in Dublin and the leader of the all-island nationalist party, Aontú (“Unite”). He believes that Ms. O’Neill’s decision will “be welcomed by media and the middle-classes” but that it was a repudiation of Irish republican principles. Ms. O’Neill, he said, would not be attending “as a head of state, but as a subject of a British king who claims jurisdiction over her and her country.”
This is not just a question of appearances for Mr. Toibín. Ireland and Britain live in the tension of an “asymmetrical relationship,” he said. He added that since Brexit, “British rule in Northern Ireland has caused a great deal of difficulty.”
Such gestures are wise. When communities have been divided so deeply for so long, “optics are very important.”
He cites as an example the “Legacy Bill,” which “King Charles will sign into law this year.” The measure extends an amnesty to members of the British military alleged to have committed crimes in Northern Ireland during the dramatic and violent period known as “The Troubles.” It has been condemned by E.U. bodies and widely decried by human rights advocates and even leading British politicians as an effort to deny justice to victims of British military abuses.
The Rev. Martin Magill is a parish priest in west Belfast, traditionally one of the strongholds of Irish nationalism. He was not as surprised by Ms. O’Neill’s announcement.
He had noticed that in late April, Sinn Féin had erected posters reading “Ag obair do chách” (“Working for all”). “They’re all over west Belfast; I suspect they’re probably further afield,” he said. The campaign seemed to him a signal to their base that Sinn Féin would be making big changes in its historic policies.
Father Magill has encountered “no issues at all” from his parishioners regarding the decision of the Sinn Féin leader to attend the coronation. Instead, there is a widespread sense that the conciliatory gesture is an example of politicians “showing leadership” while also thinking about the upcoming local elections on May 18.
While this would be hard to imagine just a few years ago, now “this will not go against them,” he said. “If anything, this will go in their favor. It’s a good move on their part.”
While not dismissing the principles of Irish nationalism, Father Magill feels such gestures are wise. When communities have been divided so deeply for so long, “optics are very important,” he said. “Gestures like this, from a wider perspective, are actually quite helpful.”
While there are hardliners among the Unionist community who will always dismiss anything the nationalist leadership does, most people in Northern Ireland are more flexible and open to finding new ways of navigating these contested political questions.
Father Magill knows this first hand. Twelve years ago, after a chance meeting with a Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Steve Stockman, the two men established the “4 Corners Arts Festival” as a peacemaking initiative. “4 Corners is about trying to get us to know and feel comfortable in the whole city,” he said. Irish nationalists and unionists, typically Catholic and Protestant, rarely violate the physical and traditional borders of their respective communities in Belfast.
The organizers of 4 Corners schedule events that might traditionally be of interest to the Unionist community in nationalist neighborhoods, and vice versa.
This is how the slow work of peacebuilding happens, helped or hindered for sure by the actions of leaders, but ultimately a task taken up by ordinary people in churches, parishes and communities across Ireland.
Correction: The original story reported that the Irish republic was established in 1937. Although a republican constitution was approved that year, the Republic of Ireland was not formally declared until 1949.
