Victoria Remembered

In a few weeks time Queen Elizabeth II will be visiting Ireland on a full State Visit at the invitation of our President. This will be the first British Royal visit to Ireland since the foundation of the state in 1922. The last such trip was made by King George V in 1911. Prior to that we had been visited of course by the great Queen Victoria. There is some opposition within the country to the visit but it is very much a minority who are involved and hopefully nobody will do anything silly on the occasion. Personally, I have reservations. I suppose there has to be a first time but I wonder if now might not be a bit too soon because I fear that someone may act stupidly and sour the situation for a long time to come.

For all my UK readers and viewers, may I just point out that todays blip is not the result of some Photoshop trickery. All our pillar boxes over here are of course green and not British Post Office red. When the representatives of the UK left our green fair isle (or at least the part of it in which I reside) they didn't bother to take their posting boxes with them, which was fine as it meant we didn't have to go to the trouble of replacing them. We just bought afew tins of green paint and did a quick colour change.

Most of the old British boxes have long since been replaced but a few fine old relics still exist and this is one of them, set into a wall on the Upper Main Street in Arklow. As you can see, it still bears the Royal Insignia "VR" (Victoria Regina) covered with probably 30 or 40 coats of green paint. I hope it lasts for a very long time yet, a permanent monument to times past and to the men and women who led the freedom struggle.

I wonder if someone will bring Queen Elizabeth to Arklow to see this reminder of her great ane esteemed ancestor. Somehow I doubt it.