There is a letter from Lady Diana that shames the Royal Family of England. It’s the one written in May 1993, in which Northern Ireland is part of the Republic of Ireland. The then Princess of Wales, who would die in a car accident in Paris 5 years later, expressed herself in this way shortly before a historic visit by Irish President Mary Robinson to Buckingham Palace. The first time an Eire Head of State has set foot in the United Kingdom. At the 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 British paratroopers fired into the crowd at a protest march in Londonderry, killing 14 people. Lady D’s departure was sensational, prompting the Irish ambassador to London, John Small, to respond with a note: “British Princess Diana demonstrated clear ignorance or disregard for constitutional niceties in relation to Northern Ireland.” The ambassador was forced to include a folder with information material for the President of Ireland stating that the Princess Royal had visited Belfast in a private capacity to take part in equestrian competitions. In order not to create misunderstandings regarding the imminent meeting with Queen Elizabeth II.
The correspondence, now available for consultation at the National Archives under file 2023/146/40, includes the letter dated 21 May 1993 in which Small highlights: “Every time we meet Prince Charles, he invariably says he would like to visit the Ireland. It is of course a regular visit to Northern Ireland. Lady Diana was there too. At the beginning of last year she said to me, with evident ignorance of constitutional subtleties: ‘Yesterday I was in your country!'” This “confusion” forced the ambassador to include a note to the president detailing the political situation in the United Kingdom, with elements from the diaspora Irish in England before what would become 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. Pressuring the IRA, the republican army clandestine, to lay down his arms. Mrs Robinson’s visit to London was scheduled for 26 May, when she would have obtained the degree of Doctor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford, thus becoming an honorary member of Hertford College, Oxford . On that occasion, he would present the Irish Post Awards to honor the Irish in Great Britain. Afterwards, the “courtesy visit” to Queen Elizabeth II in response to the monarch’s invitation. Among the topics reported for a possible discussion between the president and the queen were Northern Ireland, the Ulster bombings, cross-border issues and general Irish relations. and the United Kingdom. In this context, any wrong or simply “too many” words could have put at risk the diplomatic work aimed at rapprochement between Dublin and London, a relationship made very tense by the unresolved issue of Northern Ireland. The Princess of Wales fell like a bomb and risked blowing up the meeting between the two Heads of State if the Irish ambassador had not minimized, amended and attenuated the meaning of Lady D’s statements, giving her, in fact, the ignorance of constitutional subtleties.” Diana Spencer was at that time the wife of the future king of England, Charles, and any comments she made had, and were given, considerable weight.
Source: IL Tempo

John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.