To Kill A Queen

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny has assured his colleagues in England that "the vast majority" of the the Irish people will welcome Queen Elizabeth when she sets foot on Irish ground.

Notice that he didn't say "everyone".

The timing could have been better. Her Majesty will inhale the misty air of Dublin on the anniversary of the city's bombing by unionist thugs in 1974. Mr. Kenny anticipates a bit of a protest but nothing so big as to interfere with the "vast majority" making welcome.

That's not the least of it. The use of the bomb as a regime-changing tool is part of Irish history, featuring prominently in Charles Stuart Parnell's time, when a long-standing battle for liberty fired up fresh.

Irish nationalists attempted to set off bombs all over London, with funding and planning largely coming out of Chicago (but that's another story for another day). When Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee, security was massive. An attempt on her life was feared.

To learn more about those times and the mindset of those who would kill a queen, you'll find it in the pages of A Terrible Beauty.

After you've read that book, you'll understand how a mission can carry on, down through the generations. You'll understand why Enda Kenny hedged his bets when he spoke of "the vast majority".

There's a minority he's worried about. They want England out of Ireland, as did their ancestors before them. They might have tried to kill a queen once before with a bomb. Or maybe the plot on Queen Victoria's life was perpetrated by someone on her side, to put an end to Home Rule and preserve the Empire.

The Irish have long memories. Expect security to be stifling.