Newly released state papers claim that Queen Elizabeth II expressed a dim view of Orange marches in Northern Ireland. The papers show that the queen expressed her relief that the marching business in Northern Ireland was quieter than expected when she met with Ted Barrington, the then Irish ambassador to the UK, at a Buckingham Palace garden party in 2000. At the party, Barrington said it was not the first time he had heard the queen’s dismissive views of the marches. Mr. Barrington was the only person to report the conversation, as private conversations with the monarch usually remain so. The report remained private for almost 25 years, and it has only been released following Elizabeth’s death.
Mr. Barrington recounted that it wasn’t the first time the Queen had expressed her dismissive views towards the Orange marches. Following the release of paramilitary prisoners under the 1998 Peace Agreement, the then queen conveyed her optimism for the Northern Irish peace process and the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. She spoke specifically about the release of Michael Stone and valued the importance of prisoner releases for the success of the peace agreement.
Mr. Barrington had held back on reporting the queen’s views to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin because he had feared they would gain wider currency. Only following her death did Mr. Barrington request that his report be given limited circulation, conscious of the controversy that her remarks would likely provoke if publicised. Despite her negative views, Queen Elizabeth II made 25 visits to Northern Ireland during her reign, the majority of which occurred in the 1990s and 2000s after the peace process took hold.
Newly released documents also show that officials from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs were highly critical of Lord Saville’s approach to chairing the Bloody Sunday Tribunal hearings. They claimed that he was largely responsible for the gradual transformation of the inquiry from an inquisitorial forum into an adversarial shooting gallery. The document highlights concerns that his approach to dealing with establishment witnesses created “disconcerting signs of imbalance,” and that he was “clearly more deferential” to British police, military, and political witnesses. The inquiry eventually led to the prime minister, David Cameron, issuing an apology for civilian deaths.
From 1999 to 2002, authorities made a number of attempts to contact Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Association, to explain why a planned DUP counter-protest was cancelled. Paisley responded that he had no personal recollection of the matter
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