HOW I SEE IT
WITH all those reports of thwarted terror plots against the Monarch and all the beefed-up security (there were even armed guards for the armed guards), the atmosphere was edgier than usual at the Cenotaph yesterday morning.
Under the circumstances, perhaps it wasn’t so surprising when the crowd decided to break with custom at the end of the Service of remembrance.
Normally, they watch the Queen depart in solemn, respectful silence. Yesterday, they broke into applause – not that there was ever the faintest possibility that her Majesty would miss the most sacred ritual in the national calendar.
It meant that we rather overlooked an important new addition to this timeless ceremony. And a very welcome one it was too.
After the Queen and other members of the royal Family had placed tributes at the Cenotaph, followed by party leaders and Commonwealth representatives, a lone figure stepped forward.
Daniel Mulhall, the Irish Ambassador to the United Kingdom, slowly laid his own wreath, a striking green laurel number standing out in this carpet of red, and performed a deep bow.
For the first time since 1946, the Irish government was participating in Britain’s Service of remembrance.
The centenary of the outbreak of the First World War has generated many memorable sights, most notably those ceramic poppies at the Tower of London.
They honour every fallen British and colonial serviceman. And 35,000 of those poppies represent Irishmen – out of a total of 200,000 Irishmen who volunteered to fight. Yesterday’s Irish presence, following a formal invitation from the British Government a month ago, was recognition of that sacrifice. henceforth, it will happen every year.
It’s another small but significant sign of that ever-closer bilateral bonhomie, following on from the Queen’s state visit to Ireland in 2011 and this year’s equally historic state visit to Britain by the Irish president (not to mention that Windsor Castle dinner invitation for former IRA chief, Martin McGuinness).
It was in 1987 that Mr McGuinness’s old comrades planted a remembrance Sunday bomb which killed 11 people in Enniskillen.
Yesterday, the threat was from a different but equally dangerous quarter.
Police were taking no chances after last week’s arrest of four men, under the Terrorism Act, in connection with an alleged plot to kill the Queen.
Queues stretched for half a mile around Whitehall as members of the public endured the most intensive screening process many veterans could recall at this event.
With 10,000 people due to take part in the royal British Legion’s parade and many times that number hoping to line the route, the extra security led to confusion and late arrivals. At the same moment that the Queen and the royal Family were emerging from the Foreign Office, just ahead of the eleven o’clock silence, there were still a thousand marchers trudging into their positions on Whitehall.
While the royal party and politicians took their positions in front of the Cenotaph, the spouses looked down from balconies above. In one alcove, stood the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duchess of Cambridge – with a gleaming poppy brooch – and the Countess of Wessex.
Next door, Samantha Cameron and Justine Miliband – both in small, stylish retro hats – were joined by Cherie Blair and Ed Llewellyn, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.