Alessandra Zavatta December 27, 2023
There is a letter from Lady Diana that embarrasses the royal family of England. This is the version drawn up in May 1993, in which Northern Ireland is considered to be part of the Republic of Ireland. This was what the then Princess of Wales, who died in a car accident in Paris five years later, said shortly before a historic visit to Buckingham Palace by Irish President Mary Robinson. The first time an Irish head of state set foot in the United Kingdom. At this time, the Troubles, the civil war between pro-Dublin Catholics and Protestant Unionists, were still claiming victims in Ulster under British rule. The memory of Bloody Sunday was still alive, the bloody Sunday of January 30, 1972, when English paratroopers fired on the crowd at a protest march in Londonderry, killing 14 people. Lady D's departure caused a sensation, prompting the Irish ambassador to London, John Small, to remark: “Britain's Princess Diana has shown clear ignorance or disregard for constitutional intricacies in relation to Northern Ireland.” The ambassador was forced to take a folder with him to include information material for the President of Ireland indicating that the Princess had visited Belfast privately to take part in equestrian competitions. In order not to cause any misunderstandings in view of the upcoming meeting with Queen Elizabeth II.
The correspondence, now available to view in the National Archives in file 2023/146/40, includes the letter dated May 21, 1993, in which Small underlines: “Every time we meet Prince Charles he invariably says that he is Ireland Would like to visit.” This is of course a regular visit to Northern Ireland. Lady Diana was there too. Early last year, she said to me, apparently ignorant of the constitutional intricacies: 'Yesterday I was in your country!'” This “mixup.” “Forced the ambassador to attach a note to the president describing the political situation in the United Kingdom with parts of the Irish diaspora in England in advance of a strategic visit to deepen Anglo-Irish relations. Perhaps this contributed to the thaw between Dublin and London and led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The IRA, the secret republican army, was pressured to lay down its arms. Ms Robinson's visit to London was scheduled for May 26, when he would have received his doctorate. He obtained his degree in civil law from the University of Oxford, making him an honorary fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. On this occasion he presented the Irish Post Awards to honor Irish people in Britain. Then the “courtesy visit” to Queen Elizabeth II at the monarch’s invitation. Topics reported for a possible conversation between the President and the Queen included Northern Ireland, the Ulster bombings, cross-border issues and general relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom. In this context, incorrect or simply “too many” words could have jeopardized the diplomatic work on rapprochement between Dublin and London, a relationship that was very strained due to the unresolved Northern Ireland issue. The words of the Princess of Wales fell like a bomb and risked blowing up the meeting of the two heads of state if the Irish ambassador had not downplayed, patched up and softened the significance of Lady D's statements, effectively denouncing her ignorance would have attributed constitutional niceties “. Diana Spencer was at that time the wife of the future King of England, Charles, and any comments she made had and received considerable weight.