Michelle O’Neill, the vice president of Sinn Féin and the First Minister-designate of Northern Ireland, says she has accepted an invitation to attend the coronation of King Charles III, which will take place in London on Saturday, May 6.
“I have accepted an invitation to attend the coronation of King Charles III,” O’Neill said in a tweet on Wednesday, April 26.
“We are living in a time of great change. A time to respect our differing and equally legitimate aspirations, and focus on the opportunities the next decade will bring.
“I am an Irish Republican. I also recognise there are many people on our island for whom the coronation is a hugely important occasion.
“I am committed to being a First Minister for all, representing the whole community, and advancing peace and reconciliation through respectful and mature engagement.
“Therefore I will join President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, international figures, other party leaders and the Assembly Speaker for the coronation of King Charles III.”
I have accepted an invitation to attend the coronation of King Charles lll.
We are living in a time of great change. A time to respect our differing and equally legitimate aspirations, and focus on the opportunities the next decade will bring.
I am an Irish Republican. I also…
— Michelle O’Neill (@moneillsf) April 26, 2023
O'Neill's attendance at the upcoming coronation is the latest in what could be considered a new era for relations between Irish republicanism and British royalty.
In 2011, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland. During her historic visit, she laid a wreath commemorating IRA volunteers who fought against the British.
May 17, 2011: Queen Elizabeth lays a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin. (RollingNews.ie)
The following year, the Queen shook hands with Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander who went on to become Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, in Belfast.
(RollingNews.ie)
Following in his mother's footsteps, Prince Charles shook hands with Gerry Adams, then the President of Sinn Féin, in Co Galway in 2015.
May 19, 2015: Prince Charles shakes hands with President of Sinn Fein Gerry Adams at the National University of Ireland in Galway. (RollingNews.ie)
In 2020, Prince Charles wrote to the President of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, wishing her well after she got COVID. McDonald said afterward: "If you want a measure of how much things have changed, there's one, I suppose, small example."
The following year, McDonald apologized to the British Royal family for the 1979 IRA murder of Lord Mountbatten in Co Sligo. That same year, she wrote to Charles and Queen Elizabeth, offering her condolences on the passing of Prince Phillip.
Last June, O'Neill and other members of Sinn Féin offered words of respect marking Queen Elizabeth's platinum jubilee.
Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth in September, O'Neill and fellow Sinn Féin member Alex Maskey met with King Charles and his wife Camilla, Queen Consort at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down to offer their condolences.
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