CAERNARFON CASTLE: massive castle built
to subdue the Welsh
publish letter
opposing royal visit
by Sue Davies
The Queen of England is visiting Caernarfon on Tuesday, April 27, and the media carried the exited comments of a royalist town councillor, Anita Kirk, who quickly went on to declare war on free speech.
Clearly there is strong opposition in the town to the visit – as evidenced by posters spread around the town and comments on local blogs. But Ms Kirk, like almost all royalists, distrusts free speech when it comes to the monarchy and has declared she will tear down every poster she sees.
But apart from just mentioning the “offensive” posters, the local North Wales media – for instance, the English-owned Caernarfon Herald and Liverpool Daily Post – said nothing more about the opposition. The royalists, as so often happens in Wales, were given fulsome publicity.
I tried to get a letter along the following lines in the Herald but it was rejected without explanation.
The Caernarfon pro-royalist comments betray a woeful ignorance of Welsh history. Down through the centuries, the Queen’s ancestors cut many a bloody swathe across Wales committing many atrocities as they tried hard to destroy the Welsh along with their language and culture. Thousands of Welsh men, women and children were murdered in defence of their land.
I suppose it’s pointless demanding reparations for those many crimes but should we swing entirely the other way and bow and scrape whenever the descendants of those who tried to destroy us put in an appearance? Surely it is a matter of national self respect.
I have never supported violent protest against the royals, always counter-productive. Instead we have a much more potent weapon at our disposal - complete indifference. They’ll soon get the message.
For years I’ve called for the Welsh to be allowed a referendum on the English monarchy, but our English masters have always refused – it's obvious they fear the result.
The anti-queen posters have been described “offensive”. Would that be more “offensive” than her ancestors murdering many Welsh people and never being called to account?
The queen plans to visit massive Caernarfon Castle, one of the many castles her ancestor Edward I was forced to build to try and subdue the Welsh, who resisted the Norman/English for two hundred years and were never fully conquered. Will the likes of Ms Kirk spot the irony? I doubt it.