25-04-21, 21:55
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#8
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re: Amnesty For IRA & British Soldiers To Be Announced
Sinn Féin Leaders' Apology to Royal Family The Right Thing to Do
President of Sinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald has apologized to the British Royal family for the murder of Lord Mountbatten by the IRA.
Irish Central, 25 APR 2021
In an extraordinary gesture, the head of Sinn Féin has apologized for the murder of Lord Mountbatten in the week that his nephew Prince Philip died. The apology reflects that we live in very different times now from The Troubles.
Mary Lou McDonald the Sinn Féin leader has apologized to the Royal Family for the murder of Lord Louis Mountbatten, in County Sligo, on August 27, 1979. The timing was correct on a week of tragedy for the Royal family even if arguably, the apology should have been made in 2011 during the Queen’s state visit to Ireland.
Also killed were two teenagers and Lady Brabourne, mother of one of the boys, Nicholas Brabourne who was 14, The other teen was a 15-year old local lad Paul Maxwell.
It was one of the darkest episodes of The Troubles, intensified by an attack later that day on a British army unit that killed 18 soldiers.
It is an extraordinary apology and a brave decision by Mary Lou McDonald to acknowledge that like so many deaths in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic during The Troubles, the Mountbatten murder was wrong and did nothing for peace.
The apology could also have been prompted by the continued goodwill towards the Irish peace process shown by the Queen and her courtiers, The Queen’s visit to Ireland in 2011 is rightly seen as a turning point as was her greeting among with Prince Philip of Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness in 2016 and the brief meeting between Gerry Adams and Prince Charles in 2015.
Those meetings and continued contacts have made it clear that the royal family stands ready to help rather than hinder the peace process in Ireland --no small matter. It is in that context that McDonald spoke and apologized.
It is excellent timing as The New York Times noticed: ”Seeking to salve an old wound at a time of sorrow for Britain’s royal family, the political leader of the Irish republican movement apologized for the 1979 assassination of Louis Mountbatten, an uncle of Prince Philip.”
McDonald was also addressing a new generation of Irish who know little of The Troubles other than from history books and she is drawing a clear line between politics and conflict.
As the largest political party in Northern Ireland and second largest in the Irish Republic, Sinn Féin has pivoted completely to a peace strategy.
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