Charles III visits Northern Ireland in tense atmosphere

The new King Charles III is visiting four provinces of the United Kingdom this week, but in Northern Ireland, where he arrived yesterday, he will face a major test of reconciliation. It is known that Scotland, which the new king visited on Monday, had the intention of organizing a new referendum on its independence, but armed resistance to the crown died down centuries ago. Northern Ireland was not at peace until 1998 and is still fragile. Unionists so loyal to Queen Elizabeth II fear that their cause of belonging to the United Kingdom will be threatened more than ever by a political climate rocked by Brexit and the historic progress of Republican nationalists and reunionists with the neighboring Republic of Ireland. “I acknowledge that she was a courageous and loving leader,” IRA Vice President Michelle O’Neill said at a special meeting in the provincial parliament on Monday. She also hailed Queen Elizabeth’s “great contribution to the promotion of peace and reconciliation between the various traditions of our island and between Ireland and the UK during the years of the peace process”. “Unions are very concerned about their identity and their place in the post-Brexit UK,” Deirdre Henin, professor of social policy at the University of Ulster, told AFP. Tens of thousands of Britons have gathered in front of the coffin of Elizabeth II in Edinburgh before it is transported to London, where a grand farewell party is being prepared for the popular late Queen. The coffin was placed on a podium and wrapped around with the Royal Scottish Banner, a wreath of white flowers and the crown of Scotland in solid gold. The coffin remained accessible to the inhabitants throughout the night, as long as four royal archers guarded it. It remained open to the public when King Charles III, along with his three brothers, Prince Andrew, Edward and Princess Anne, appeared with his wife Camilla in the evening at the funeral. They stood in front of the coffin for about ten minutes before leaving the cathedral to the applause of the crowd.