Queen Elizabeth II spoke of her relief that the “silly marching season” in Northern Ireland was quieter than usual during a visit from the Irish ambassador in 2000, it has been revealed.
The comments were unearthed as the Dublin government released a series of state papers on Friday.
Ambassador Ted Barrington had met the Queen at a Buckingham Palace garden party on 25 July and said it was not the first time he heard “her dismissive views of the Orange marches”, the BBC reports.
Mr Barrington said the late monarch’s comments “were similar to those she has made to me on previous occasions”.
The ambassador’s account is the only available description of what was said.
His record of the meeting shows that the Queen was “optimistic about the peace process”.
A number of paramilitary prisoners were released just that week under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Referring specifically to Michael Stone’s release on the previous day, she recognised that while he had “done dreadful things”, prisoner releases were important for the success of the peace agreement.
The Irish state papers were released on Friday documenting the year 1994, but files dealing with Northern Ireland and relations with Britain are released after 20 years in order to match documents released by the UK government.
