Fair play to the British Queen for saying a few words in Irish at the State Banquet on Wednesday, it was good to see her speak a language her predecessors on the throne spent centuries trying to wipe out.
As well as that, fair play to her for laying a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance on Tuesday. In doing so she acknowledged the struggle for Irish freedom from 1798-1921, a struggle against the crown she wears on her head. It would be churlish not to acknowledge the importance of this gesture, in a way she was saying that this struggle was legitimate.
Another word of praise must go to broadcaster Vincent Browne for discussing the Dublin-Monaghan bombing on its 37th anniversary on his TV3 show on Tuesday. The families of the 34 people killed and the hundreds of injured have been shamefully treated by the Irish and British governments since the atrocity occurred. The bombing was barely investigated by the Gardaí and the British authorities are still unwilling to cooperate with efforts to find the truth.
The theme of the week has been the 'normalization' of relations between the Republic of Ireland and the UK, however, there is nothing normal about the UK's refusal to release all it knows about the greatest crime in the history of the Irish state.
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