The Prague Post - New king visits a tense and changing Northern Ireland

EUR -
AED 4.298308
AFN 81.92842
ALL 98.084438
AMD 449.658082
ANG 2.094583
AOA 1073.261444
ARS 1468.279515
AUD 1.797333
AWG 2.106729
AZN 1.991668
BAM 1.950584
BBD 2.361684
BDT 142.702048
BGN 1.952874
BHD 0.441244
BIF 3442.161504
BMD 1.170405
BND 1.495414
BOB 8.082386
BRL 6.37672
BSD 1.169772
BTN 100.183093
BWP 15.616838
BYN 3.827896
BYR 22939.94066
BZD 2.349537
CAD 1.601886
CDF 3377.78954
CHF 0.933357
CLF 0.02875
CLP 1103.282348
CNY 8.396545
CNH 8.408618
COP 4742.04856
CRC 591.323751
CUC 1.170405
CUP 31.015736
CVE 110.718148
CZK 24.646426
DJF 208.0043
DKK 7.461362
DOP 70.350158
DZD 151.75855
EGP 58.145374
ERN 17.556077
ETB 159.672582
FJD 2.63493
FKP 0.862316
GBP 0.862764
GEL 3.171819
GGP 0.862316
GHS 12.166116
GIP 0.862316
GMD 83.688631
GNF 10131.027064
GTQ 8.990189
GYD 244.728101
HKD 9.187663
HNL 30.84028
HRK 7.530413
HTG 153.519463
HUF 400.091736
IDR 19027.510373
ILS 3.917797
IMP 0.862316
INR 100.486011
IQD 1533.230728
IRR 49303.316231
ISK 142.964601
JEP 0.862316
JMD 186.69553
JOD 0.829797
JPY 172.183562
KES 151.572338
KGS 102.35198
KHR 4706.199287
KMF 492.135958
KPW 1053.33889
KRW 1609.04963
KWD 0.357653
KYD 0.974835
KZT 607.784679
LAK 25222.230108
LBP 104868.299941
LKR 351.638671
LRD 234.666446
LSL 20.82134
LTL 3.455902
LVL 0.707966
LYD 6.317227
MAD 10.539461
MDL 19.797818
MGA 5184.89504
MKD 61.456221
MMK 2457.274227
MNT 4200.068068
MOP 9.458292
MRU 46.470981
MUR 52.797044
MVR 18.017904
MWK 2032.412478
MXN 21.795138
MYR 4.979492
MZN 74.859293
NAD 20.821752
NGN 1792.545747
NIO 43.012461
NOK 11.837998
NPR 160.294714
NZD 1.958001
OMR 0.450015
PAB 1.169682
PEN 4.148497
PGK 4.827984
PHP 66.236151
PKR 332.687497
PLN 4.243969
PYG 9322.309495
QAR 4.260981
RON 5.080258
RSD 117.17157
RUB 91.876031
RWF 1678.360965
SAR 4.389513
SBD 9.757579
SCR 16.795029
SDG 702.829472
SEK 11.168743
SGD 1.499763
SHP 0.919755
SLE 26.33756
SLL 24542.814783
SOS 668.884838
SRD 43.683615
STD 24225.023271
SVC 10.234892
SYP 15217.759559
SZL 20.821484
THB 38.256993
TJS 11.235231
TMT 4.108122
TND 3.388456
TOP 2.741205
TRY 46.869412
TTD 7.935846
TWD 34.069936
TZS 3090.09425
UAH 48.858496
UGX 4204.755761
USD 1.170405
UYU 46.96561
UZS 14893.405655
VES 131.422218
VND 30603.168287
VUV 139.633925
WST 3.222549
XAF 654.218686
XAG 0.032033
XAU 0.000356
XCD 3.163078
XDR 0.812997
XOF 651.915763
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.061714
ZAR 20.832029
ZMK 10535.048293
ZMW 28.335227
ZWL 376.869976
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

New king visits a tense and changing Northern Ireland
New king visits a tense and changing Northern Ireland / Photo: PAUL FAITH - AFP

New king visits a tense and changing Northern Ireland

As he tours the four corners of his fractious new kingdom, Charles III faces the most testing task of reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

Text size:

Scotland, which Charles visited on Monday, may be angling for a new referendum on independence but armed resistance there to the Crown waned centuries ago.

Northern Ireland only achieved peace in 1998 -- and it remains fragile.

The devotion of Northern Ireland's unionists to Queen Elizabeth II bordered on the reverential, integrated with their wider sense of belonging to the United Kingdom, which they feel is under threat as never before.

On Belfast's staunchly unionist Shankill Road, a mural tribute for Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June has drawn a steady stream of mourners and flowers.

Shankill resident Marina Reid, 54, cited reports that have sparked deep anger among unionists, of a few nationalists letting off celebratory fireworks and singing songs since the queen's death last week.

"That tells you everything about the respect we're getting from them in our time of grief," she told AFP.

Northern Irish police are investigating but the reports do not reflect the response of the broader community of pro-Irish nationalists.

- 'Courageous' -

"I recognise that she was a courageous and gracious leader," Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill, who is in line to become Northern Ireland's first minister, said Monday at a special session of the regional assembly in Stormont.

She hailed "the significant contribution Queen Elizabeth made to the advancement of peace and reconciliation between the different traditions on our island, and between Ireland and Britain during the years of the peace process".

When he meets the region's feuding political leaders on Tuesday at the royal estate of Hillsborough Castle, south of Belfast, Charles will receive tributes from pro-UK parties and the respectful sympathies of nationalists who nevertheless can see reunification with Ireland drawing closer.

Charles will then head on to an Anglican religious service in Belfast, set to be attended by all faiths, including Protestants and Catholics.

The president, prime minister and foreign minister of Ireland also plan to participate.

For the first time in its 101-year history, the population of a region expressly carved out as a Protestant fiefdom is passing to a Catholic majority, upcoming census data is expected to show.

Elections held in May were won by Sinn Fein, formerly the political wing of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA), which in 1979 assassinated Louis Mountbatten, the uncle of the queen's late husband, Prince Philip.

- 'Unsettled' -

But the Stormont government remains suspended, with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) bitterly opposed to post-Brexit trading rules between Brussels and London -- which Prime Minister Liz Truss's new government is threatening to rip up failing concessions from the European Union.

Sinn Fein refuses to recognise the authority of the British monarchy in Northern Ireland, and does not take up its seats in the UK parliament in London.

O'Neill boycotted Sunday's ceremonial proclamation of Charles III as king at Hillsborough.

But Sinn Fein says it will meet the king along with the other leaders, and attend the service at St Anne's Cathedral to both honour the queen's long service and to respect the unionist community's profound sense of loss.

"Unionists are feeling very unsettled in terms of their identity, unsettled about their place in the United Kingdom after Brexit," Deirdre Heenan, professor of social policy at Ulster University, told AFP.

"The queen's passing is a further blow to their confidence and identity. They will of course embrace the new king, but they will be aware that this could usher in seismic change," she said.

- Peace -

Elizabeth, who visited Northern Ireland 22 times as queen, played a telling role in the peace process after a historic agreement in 1998 ended the three decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

In 2012, she shook the hand of former Sinn Fein minister -- and reputed IRA commander -- Martin McGuinness. A year earlier, she became the first British monarch to visit an independent Ireland.

At the end of mass on Sunday, the priest at the Catholic church of St Patrick's in central Belfast told his parishioners he intended to hold a prayer for Elizabeth, and they were free to leave if they wished.

None did, and all joined in the prayer, said taxi driver Paul Donnelly, 53, who was born in the year "The Troubles" started -- 1969 -- and whose father was maimed in a bombing by unionist militants.

"We may have had our differences but she was a mother, grandmother, who did her duty to the end," he said.

"As a kid, I saw IRA men shoot dead a British soldier. I never thought I'd see peace in this country, and she helped bring it about, 100 percent."

R.Krejci--TPP