Queen Visits Ireland for First Time Since Independence

QE II visited Dublin and laid a wreath on the remembrance memorial of the patriots killed in the 1916 Easter Rebellion, something I'd never thought would happen in my lifetime.

Last summer, my wife, daughter & I arrived in Dublin on June 16th, "Bloom's Day," and was intrigued to see that the British had opened the dossiers of the Royal Commission back in the '70s which had covered up British commando complicity in the cold-blooded murders of the Derry Sunday massacre. Now the Queen arrives 100 years since the last 1911 visit of King George V to Dublin.

As an illuminating sidenote: Way back in the day, I was Political Officer at the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia at the Fourth of July bash where both the British and American Ambassadors were of Irish heritage, both being born near Dublin. When I mentioned this to my Indian counterpart, he shared with me the interesting fact that the Easter Rebellion had so impressed Indian Independence non-violent 'fighters' that after Independence in 1947, India adopted the Irish legal and court system of justice out of respect and honor.