After the plaudits, the protests

BY GERARD DONAGHY

RTÉ’s decision to dedicate four hours of coverage to the coronation of King Charles III has been branded ‘terrible’ by TDs from People Before Profit. Ahead of the event, People Before Profit said that RTÉ’s “wall-to-wall coverage of the coronation of King Charles… is a terrible decision”.

Speaking in the Dáil before the ceremony, Paul Murphy TD described the British monarchy as a ‘hated institution’.

“Some republicans are saying they will attend the coronation on the grounds of reaching out to the unionist community,” he said.

“We think it is perfectly possible and necessary to build a united socialist movement of working-class people from Catholic, Protestant and non-religious backgrounds, not on the basis of this sort of anachronistic and hated institution but on the basis of the interests of ordinary people and the need for a

REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE:

Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill at the coronation Picture: Getty Images socialist Ireland and a socialist world.

Charles has visited regularly in the past two decades, supporting good bilateral relations, co-operation, peace and reconciliation. I expressed my hope that his regular visits will continue into his reign”.

“Even in Britain, only 29 per cent of people think the monarchy is very important. It is an increasingly unpopular institution.

“However, a viewer who turns on RTÉ on Saturday will be treated to four hours of the coronation. Why on earth is our State broadcaster spending four hours on a Saturday displaying this so-called coronation?”

Fellow People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett also blasted the coronation as an anachronism, saying most remaining royal houses in Europe have abandoned such ceremonies.

“They do not have coronations anymore; it is not legally required,” he said.

Catholics were not permitted to attend non-Catholic services when Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, according to The Tablet.

Archbishop Mark O’Toole of Cardiff was also in attendance along with Bishop Hugh Gilbert, president of Scotland’s bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See Secretary of State, also took part in the service.

Prof Diarmuid MacCulloch, Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford, told The Tablet it is likely that the last time a cardinal was involved in a coronation in Britain was in 1543 at the crowning of the infant Mary Queen of Scots.

“Yet, this weekend, a considerable amount of public money in Britain will be spent on this coronation, which is an insult to considerable numbers of people living in poverty in Britain and the national broadcaster in this country will broadcast this for four hours.

The Taoiseach defended the coronation, claiming that a constitutional monarchy is supported by the majority of people in the UK. “The majority of people in the United Kingdom want a constitutional monarchy with a democratically elected parliament and government and I think we should respect their choices.”