Opinion A queen in the Republic

Indeed,this week seems like a family reunion,a dramatic embodiment of the Irish maxim “May your roof never fall in and those under it never fall out.” Queen Elizabeth,who ensorcelled the former colony on a four-day visit last week,was like “the prodigal mother,” as one young Irishman said. And Obama’s the American cousin who made good.

Both the 85-year-old queen and the Irish were taken aback,moved and finally over the moon with her debut sojourn here,the first visit of a British monarch in a century. The tale of two islands began with Liz,as The Irish Daily Star calls her,wearing an emerald green suit and the tightest security ever seen here,and ended with everyone loosening up,as ecstatic residents of Cork,the rebel home of Michael Collins,waved the Union Jack and told the press,“We love her!”

The Irish started out skeptically,not wanting to curtsey or kowtow or be treated as subjects. Queen Elizabeth started out tentatively,not knowing what to expect. When she showed no condescension,spoke a phrase in Gaelic,and told the Irish that both sides needed to be “able to bow to the past but not be bound by it,” the ice melted. The Irish didn’t even mind when the queen and a remarkably gaffe-free Prince Philip didn’t sample a pint at the Guinness brewery,though Philip looked sorely tempted.

Irish commentators on TV dissected every syllable,gesture and outfit of the queen,deciding that signs of respect included her perfect pronunciation of Gaelic,her rapt inspection of Moynihan’s buttered eggs and O’Sullivan’s poultry in a Cork food market,and the fact that she changed her clothes more than Anne Hathaway at the Oscars. The Irish also deemed spectacularly gracious: her evening gown featuring 2,091 hand-sewn shamrocks,her Irish harp brooch made of Swarovski crystals,her Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara that was a wedding gift from her grandmother,her many green outfits and hats trimmed with green feathers,and her ladies-in-waiting decked out in 40 shades of green. At a gala concert on Thursday night,she was stunned to receive a five-minute standing ovation.

What the Irish loved about the queen’s speech was that,after 800 years of bloodshed,hatred and tortured negotiations between Ireland and England,both sides were able to accept their separate but entwined identities. The truism that the Irish never forget and the English never remember was put to rest when the queen laid a wreath and bowed her head at the Garden of Remembrance,the sacred ground for Irish patriots who died fighting for their country,and went to Croke Park,the scene of the first Bloody Sunday in 1920,when 14 Irish civilians were killed after British forces opened fire on them.

If Irish history has been a nightmare from which the Irish are always trying to awaken,as James Joyce said in “Ulysses,” then they have now woken up,wherever green is worn,and seen all changed,changed utterly. Maureen Dowd