Sir, – The proposed conferring of university status on the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is perhaps an opportune time to reflect on the appropriateness of the continued use of “royal” prefixes by a large number of Ireland-based institutions.
While I acknowledge the use of the British royal charter in Ireland is a residue of our colonial past and is of no real significance, and further acknowledge the valuable contribution these institutions make to Irish national life, nonetheless, monarchism was repudiated with the establishment of the Republic in 1949 and should be respected.
The British monarch is the unelected head of state for life, inherited this privilege at birth and will pass it on to her successor. The monarch is also the unelected supreme governor of the Church of England, and only Protestant heirs may take the throne.
Neither Catholics, nor those who marry a Catholic, nor those born out of wedlock, may remain in the line of succession.
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All of which render the retention of these royal prefixes anathema to the republican and egalitarian ethos of the Irish State. – Yours, etc,
TOM COOPER,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.