Queen courageous facing the devil

Despite the supposed quelling of the 30-year "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, it must have taken a great deal of restraint for Queen Elizabeth to control her gag reflex while shaking hands with the devil last week.

But shake it she did. Without a flinch.

The receiver of that diplomatic offering -- called a "historic first for the peace process" -- was none other than Martin McGuinness, now a deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, but once a former commander of the military wing of the terrorist Irish Republic Army.

And "terrorist" is the only word to call them, but certainly not freedom fighters considering few have greater freedoms than Britons.

McGuinness was there, for example, on Bloody Sunday in 1972, but claimed that his being armed with a submachine gun did nothing to provoke the death of 13 unarmed protesters by British forces.

He was the public face of the provisional IRA, as well, when Lord Mountbatten, the Queen's cousin and uncle of Prince Philip, was blown out of his deck shoes in 1979 by an IRA bomb which had been planted on his ship while he was on a holiday in Ireland.

During the 20th anniversary of the Troubles, which were covered extensively by Mark Bonokoski, then-Sun Media's European bureau chief, McGuinness was virtually omnipresent during the late '80s at rallies both in Belfast and in Londonderry's Bogside, and loudly promoting Northern Ireland's independence from Great Britain -- at "any cost." It was the time two off-duty British soldiers were ambushed after accidently being boxed in by an IRA funeral cortege -- and lynched.

Those were very bloody days in a "war" that ultimately cost the lives of 3,600 people, a thousand of which were British security personnel.

So credit to the Queen for offering her hand in peace. And for not gagging.

In West Belfast, the disdain for British rule persists in the Catholic community of the Falls Road.

During the Queen's visit, for example, a freshly-painted fence read, "Stuff your jubilee Lizzie." Martin McGuinness accepted the Queen's handshake, of course, but unlike all others, he did not bow.

Instead, he wished her goodbye and God's speed -- in Irish.

The double entendre was undoubtedly intentional.

Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author: editorial