Paul Murphy and his son Alan, fourth and fifth generation butchers at their family stall, Coughlans, remember the queen’s visit as an overwhelmingly positive day.Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Cork’s English Market may well have been over a decade ago but today as stall holders and shoppers were still absorbing the news of her death, their thoughts unsurprisingly turned to that sunny day in May 2011 when she was given the warmest of Cork welcomes.
“We were all concerned about the Troubles in the North, but we seemed to have moved on with the Queen’s visit and of course, Mary McAleese was a wonderful president, but I fear Boris has undone all the good work that Queen Elizabeth did and I’ld be similarly worried about Liz Truss.
Recalling subsequent visits to the English Market by other dignitaries including then Prince Charles and Camilla and Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy, Paul was encouraged by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald’s expression of sympathy. “The queen’s visit was definitely a remarkable time – there was huge excitement on the day but since then we’ve had Brexit which has been a huge catastrophe for everybody who is trading with the UK and certainly has not helped relations,” he said.
“It was lovely to see her here in Cork as a head of state and any improvement in relations between Ireland and the UK has to be a good thing, but I would hope the queen’s visit isn’t the high point in Irish-British relations, I would look for there to be a closer and closer relationship in the years.
Same close-up crowd shot always because the turn out was tiny.
ha --ha first laught this evening
Great days in anglo irish relations - the Queen loved peace
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