A vote by Castlebar Town Council in favour of inviting Queen Elizabeth II to the Mayo Peace Park for an official state visit to Ireland mooted for 2012 has been condemned by a local Sinn Fein councillor.
The motion by Fine Gael Cllr Eugene McCormack to extend an invitation to Queen Elizabeth was passed by 7/2 votes at the July meeting of the council but was rejected by Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne opposing the motion on economic grounds with Sinn Féin Cllr Thérèse Ruane opposing it ‘for a number of reasons. ‘
Describing an official visit by the Queen to Ireland and Castlebar as “totally unacceptable”, Cllr Ruane stated:
“I'm totally opposed to any official visit by the Queen of England to this State for a number of reasons. Firstly, the financial cost of such a visit is phenomenal, at a minimum in excess of €10 million, the cost of which the hard pressed taxpayer will shoulder. At a time when we’re in deep recession, a deep economic crisis; we have one in four young people unemployed, in excess of 450,000 on the live register, Draconian measures on social welfare, cuts to SNAs, cuts in disability services, home help, our health services are decimated, our education system in crisis, and all these cuts impacting on the most vulnerable in our communities, and yet this Government is proposing to spend hard earned taxpayers’ money on an official state visit by the Queen of England. This is appalling. We just can't afford it.”
Cllr Ruane also said she opposed the visit because of the British government’s refusal to co-operate with the Irish Government’s request for the handover of files they have in relation to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974.
“Sinn Féin opposes the proposed State visit of the Queen of England, Commander-in-Chief of the British armed forces to Ireland. Until there is complete withdrawal of the British military and the British administration from Ireland, and until there is justice and truth for victims of collusion, no official welcome should be accorded to any officer of the British armed forces of any rank.”
