A lot of Irish people will be watching on with confusion at the scenes unfolding in London today.
The British have held their first coronation in 70 years, King Charles III officially ascending to the throne. The pomp and ceremony was a sight to behold, the type of thing that you would imagine has no real place in a modern society.
Of course, the event was beamed on television screens throughout the world. That included in Ireland, where RTÉ dedicated four hours of air time to the ceremony and its aftermath.
Many of those who watch it in this country will do so out of curiosity and will likely be taken aback by how ridiculous the whole thing is. The way in which the British royal family is adored to that extent by large sections of their population is something that we often find difficult to understand.
It is certainly an alien concept to those who are part of a republic, one that fought for quite some time to cut all ties with that particular institution.
Whatever your opinion on the new monarch or his predecessor, there is no doubt that the British monarchy as a whole is an institution with a dark history and plenty of questions to answer in the present.
James McClean send message on day of coronation
While some on the island of Ireland will see this as a day of celebration, others will view it in a very different light. Many of those in Northern Ireland will certainly have contrasting emotions depending on their political views.
James McClean is someone who has made his opinions on this matter clear in the past. A native of Derry, he took to Instagram on the day of the coronation to share a relevant quote from republican Bobby Sands.
Total equality and fraternity cannot and never will be gained whilst these parasites dominate and rule the lives of a nation.
There is no equality in a society that stands upon the economic and political bog if only the strongest make it good or survive. Compare the lives, comforts, habits, wealth of all those political conmen (who allegedly are concerned for us, the people) with that of the wretchedly deprived and oppressed.
Compare it in any decade in history, compare it tomorrow, in the future, and it will mock you. Yet our perennial blindness continues. There are no luxuries in the H-Blocks. But there is true concern for the Irish people
It is 'the undauntable thought', my friend, That thought that says 'I'm right!'
The above quote comes from the diary Bobby Sands wrote during the hunger strike of Provisional IRA members at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland, with this message being shared on the very first day of the protest in March of 1981.
It is a sentiment that quite a few people will no doubt share on this date.
