The MagazineThe Reign ExplainedAn argument for Britain’s constitutional monarchy.Jul 4, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 40
• By JAMES KIRCHICK
 Monarchy Matters  Getty Images by Peter Whittle Social Affairs Unit, 91 pp., $52.10 In the middle of May, Queen Elizabeth arrived in Ireland, the first British monarch to do so since the Emerald Isle became a republic in 1922. Royal visits tend to be symbolic affairs—with the sovereign visiting health clinics, greeting well-wishers, laying wreaths at war memorials—and this one featured all the typical fare. Yet the queen’s journey to Ireland, a onetime component of the United Kingdom, whose six northern counties are still part of the U.K. and the cause of much violence in recent decades, was redolent of something more than symbolism. At a banquet in Dublin, she articulated a message of unity in the way that only a monarch—who, by virtue of her station, sits above the give-and-take of everyday politics—can do: “To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past,” she said, “I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight, we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently, or not at all.” To read more, you must be a Weekly Standard Subscriber We're Sorry,
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