ANY PROTESTS that Sinn Féin organises against the British royal visit next month will be “non-confrontational”, the party’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.
The party has not yet finalised its preparations, but there would be no picketing and no “confrontation for the sake of it”, she added.
Speaking to reporters at Leinster House yesterday, Ms McDonald said there was nothing of a “personal” nature about Sinn Féin’s objections to the visit.
“This isn’t personal: I am conscious of the fact that it is an elderly couple visiting the country.
“On a human level, of course, nobody wishes to be unnecessarily confrontational for the sake of it, but state visits are political, there’s politics in this and the politics of this is: putting the cart before the horse. We’re not there yet and it’s premature.”
She said she wanted to stress that “nobody should use this occasion as an excuse for any type of aggression on the streets or confrontation with anybody”.
Ms McDonald added: “People are entitled to welcome the Queen of England, people are equally open to protest but the one common thing has to be that this has to be dignified, democratic and non-confrontational.”
Asked what type of activity Sinn Féin would be organising at the time of the visit, which takes place between May 17th and 20th, Ms McDonald said: “We haven’t finalised the details on it. I don’t think it will be a march.”
Nor would Sinn Féin be picketing any of the locations in the programme for the royal visit.
She pointed out that, at the time of the last British royal visit in 1911, the main protest took the form of a picnic organised by Countess Markiewicz and others.
“It would be entirely inappropriate for anybody to use the occasion of this visit for any kind of confrontation for the sake of it,” she said. “We may do a public meeting, we may do a concert, we may do a number of different things, what we will not be doing is picketing events where the Queen of England will be, that’s not our intention.” No Sinn Féin elected representatives would be meeting the Queen or taking part in any functions on the programme for the visit.
The difference between a visit by the Queen as distinct from the British prime minister was that “she is head of the armed forces and that has particular significance in terms of what happened in Ireland, in Derry, in Ballymurphy and in Dublin and Monaghan”.
She said the timing of the royal visit to Ireland, on the anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, was “particularly insensitive”.
“It is widely believed that this attack, involving the greatest loss of life of any incident in the conflict, was carried out with the involvement of British intelligence.
“To date no files on this atrocity have been released despite the passing of an all-party Dáil motion calling on the British government ‘to allow access by an independent, international judicial figure to all original documents held by the British government relating to the atrocities inquired into by Judge Barron’.
“No action has been taken since this Dáil motion was passed in 2008.
“The only victims’ group in the 26 counties, Justice for the Forgotten, has had its funding discontinued. This cut was implemented by Fianna Fáil and looks unlikely to be lifted by the new Fine Gael-Labour Party Government.
“These parties have no problem with the visit of the British Queen, but yet they are refusing to fund Justice for the Forgotten or progress the unanimous Dáil resolution,” she said.
Ms McDonald denied that she was in any way uncomfortable at being on a different side of the issue from the Gaelic Athletic Association, which has invited the royal couple to Croke Park.
“The GAA makes the decisions for the GAA, that’s entirely proper,” she said.
“I am not going to comment on decisions of the GAA.”