LONDON – It is often said that funerals can be a time to build bridges, and Prince Philip is no exception.
A day after the Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was laid to rest, the leader of Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist party that was traditionally the political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican army, expressed his sadness. for the 1979 assassination of Lord Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle.
“I’m sorry this happened, of course it’s heartbreaking,” Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald told British radio over the weekend in response to a question asking if he would apologize to Prince Charles.
Mountbatten, who served as a leader in the British armed forces and as India’s last viceroy, was killed by an IRA bomb in Ireland while on a pleasure boat trip. The blast killed three others, including a 14-year-old boy who was Charles’ son.
The assassination was a major victory for the IRA at the time.
“He was a major member of the British institution and, from a Republican perspective, they really hit the core of the British establishment and the British aristocracy,” said James Calcutt, a researcher in Northern Ireland at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Mountbatten was one of more than 3,600 people killed during the “troubles”, the 30-year conflict between Protestant “trade unionists” who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom and, for the most part, “Republicans”. Catholics who want to reunite with the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland is politically part of the United Kingdom, but shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland.
The conflict ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, a US-mediated reference peace agreement that, among other things, allowed the erasure of the militarized Irish border.
In his comments to Times Radio, McDonald’s also included a warning that “the army and armed forces associated with Prince Charles have taken many violent actions on our island.”
However, she added that she has “an absolute commitment and an absolute responsibility to ensure that no family will face this again.”
“And I’m glad to reiterate this at the time and on the weekend when your queen buried her beloved husband,” she said.
The remarks come as violence has erupted in recent weeks in Northern Ireland, largely in loyalist areas, caused by rising tensions over post-Brexit trade rules for the region. Political leaders on all sides condemned the unrest and called for calm.
McDonald’s apologies were seen by experts as more than an olive branch for the royal family.
“This is another way of trying to show people in Northern Ireland that the conflict is over, that they have moved on, that they can recognize the pain, that they can be respectful,” said Edward Burke, an assistant professor of international relations at the University. from Nottingham.
“It does not mean, however, that Sinn Fein distances itself from the kind of campaign and the kind of violence that the IRA has visited so many years in Britain and Ireland.”
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Sinn Fein surprised the Irish political institution in the February 2020 elections, garnering more votes than any other party, for the first time on an oath to repair the country’s housing and health systems. However, the country is led by a coalition government and Sinn Fein is in opposition.
The apology was not the only way McDonald contacted the royal family in the radio interview. She also said that Charles, who in 2015 said Mountbatten represents the grandfather he never had, wrote to her last year when she was sick with Covid-19 and wished her well.
“I thought he was the most decent and kind,” she said. “We have the greatest respect for that family, for who they are and what they stand for the British and, perhaps, especially for the unionists and loyalists on the island.”
Charles met and, in particular, shook hands with former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in 2015. In 2012, his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, met and shared a historic handshake with the military commander of Republic of the Irish Republic, Martin McGuinness.
Despite the pleasures, tensions on the island are on the rise.
Brexit has sparked talks about the reunification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in a way that did not take place five years ago and there may have been deeper political calculations at stake in its comments, according to Connal Parr, who specializes. in Irish History and Issues at Northumbria University.
“The broader political goal is that Sinn Fein believes that unionists will hear this or see this and say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, there’s a certain level of remorse for the attack on the British royal family, which we believe in passion, ”he said. said.
Reuters contributed to the report.