Northern Ireland is sure to give King Charles III a warm welcome on Tuesday, but his hosts both nationalist and unionist will each have reason for a twinge of unease.
Sinn Féin will need to balance expressions of condolence with republican principles that repudiate monarchy. Unionists will need to mask any concern that Queen Elizabeth II’s death has further eroded the frayed bonds of the United Kingdom.
Such nuances are expected to remain unspoken during a reception at Hillsborough Castle in County Down and a service of reflection for the Queen at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, after which the King and Camilla, the Queen Consort, are scheduled to make a brief walkabout before flying to England.
The King is no stranger to Northern Ireland’s political dynamics. As prince he made by one count 39 official visits to the region, reassuring unionists that they were a cherished part of the UK while reaching out to republicans, most notably in a handshake with Gerry Adams in 2015.
Sinn Féin was the IRA’s mouthpiece during the Troubles and exulted in the assassination of Lord Mountbatten, who was blown up with his family in 1979. Now, as Northern Ireland’s largest party and increasingly seen as a government-in-waiting in the Republic of Ireland, it seeks to mirror the sombre public mood.
Last week party leaders expressed sorrow at the Queen’s death and an email to activists urged caution in social media postings, a coded appeal to not gloat.
Michelle O’Neill, the party’s first minister-designate, will attend the Hillsborough reception because it is to honour the Queen. The party said it would not, however, participate in events marking Charles’s accession to the throne.
A party rooted in a violent campaign against “crown forces” risks alienating supporters if it strays too far from republican ideals and rhetoric. When the Guardian asked people on the Falls Road for their opinion of the new King, responses ranged from shrugs to eye-rolling.
Alex Maskey, a former IRA internee who is now Speaker of the Stormont assembly, will embody the incongruity. As Sinn Féin’s first mayor of Belfast, he is an old-school republican and was for many years a hate figure for unionists, yet it falls to him to deliver Northern Ireland’s official message of condolence to the King in the throne room at Hillsborough Castle.
He will be aware of a ditty by Seamus Heaney – a response to Heaney’s inclusion in an anthology of British poets in 1983 – that is frequently quoted by Irish nationalists: “Be advised, my passport’s green/No glass of ours was ever raised/To toast the Queen.”
Unionists, in contrast, will vocally proclaim loyalty to a new monarch who embodies their British identity. The Democratic Unionist party (DUP), Ulster Unionist party (UUP) and others have voiced their support for the King.
The loss of the Queen and the continuity she represented comes at a time when Northern Ireland’s place in the union faces many challenges, including the post-Brexit Irish Sea border, Catholics being expected to outnumber Protestants for the first time and Sinn Féin’s political ascent on both sides of the border.
Charles does not convey the same reassurance that the UK will remain united, said one mourner, a woman in her 60s, who laid a wreath at Hillsborough Castle. “I don’t think we’re secure under Charles, I don’t think the union is as secure.”
Alex Kane, a pro-union commentator, said the monarchy would continue with King Charles. “As a nation we will gather our thoughts and continue to remember her with respect and gratitude,” he wrote in the Belfast Telegraph. “But right now, something is different. Very different. And, again for reasons I can’t really explain, that upsets me much more than I expected it to.”
