Article

Sir,

In Saturday’s edition of your newspaper, there appeared an article headed:

Ben Lowry: There is no reason to think King Charles will be bad for the Union

If that hope is based upon the new king’s repeating promises that he will follow in his mother’s footsteps, I just wonder just how much dependance can be placed in such promises.

Were the late Princess Diana with us still, she might have had a ‘telling’ comment to make!!

Sincerely,

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

Kilskeery, Co. Tyrone

UPDATE:

The above letter was not published by the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ until today, Saturday 17th September.

Few today like a dose of realism.

The contrast to our late Queen’s consistently public calmness was seen in the display of irritation and ill-temper, born of a life-time of undenied privilege, by the new king in the two instances of his pique toward his assistants over the pens on the table on which he was signing the declaration of his monarchy and again at Hillsborough Castle when his pen leaked!

I am confident that his mother never displayed such ill-manners! They show just what may be expected in larger measure when he feels he can abandon the ‘show’ he has been exercising in the wake of his mother’s passing, aimed at having people forget his adulterous marriage and that he is thereby totally unfitted to be a king.

Were there a ‘John the Baptist’ around today I know what he would say. “It is not lawful for thee to have her,” Matthew 14:4. I know also the new king would show a similar sign of disgruntlement as did Herod!

Here is the astonishing and distressful headline found in today’s ‘Belfast Telegraph’.

Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey to deliver message to King from the people of Northern Ireland

Utter madness has taken control of Ulster!

Was there ever a more grievous abandonment of propriety and decency than that displayed by this decision, by who knows who, to appoint this supporter of murder and terror to speak on behalf of the people whom he and his ilk, delighted in their being terrorised by his compatriots in the IRA.

Just what will the representative of the Unionist people do in the light of this decision?

Ought not the new King refuse to receive such a hypocritical message.

Let the DUP and its supporters recognise just how dreadful and wicked was the betrayal they were party to in the 2007 decision to join in a power-sharing deal with Sinn Fein/IRA.

The full report reveals that the whole exercise is an ‘ecumenical charade’, with the ‘cross community schools’ the only ones to play a part in the reception of the new King.

How utterly were we betrayed!

Ivan Foster.

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Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey to deliver message to King from the people of Northern Ireland

Matt Fox

September 12 2022 07:17 AM

The King and Queen Consort will receive a message of condolence from self-declared “lifelong republican activist” Alex Maskey at Hillsborough Castle tomorrow.

As Stormont Speaker, the former IRA internee has been tasked with delivering the message on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland, on which it is understood King Charles III will respond.

Tomorrow’s planned ceremony will prove particularly significant as it was the IRA who murdered the King’s much beloved great-uncle Lord Mountbatten on his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, in August 1979, and has echoes of Martin McGuinness’ handshake with the Queen in 2012.

In 1983, Mr Maskey was the first member of Sinn Fein to be elected to Belfast City Council since the 1920s.