‘A time of great change’: Sinn Fein leader, China’s VP to attend coronation

London: The leader of Sinn Fein, the republican political party historically associated with the Provisional IRA, has accepted an invitation from King Charles III to attend his coronation at Westminster.

Michelle O’Neill, who leads the party in Northern Ireland, has announced her intention to join the guests on May 6 alongside Irish president Michael D Higgins, in a move that would have been unimaginable 20 years ago following three decades of deadly conflict known as The Troubles.

The King met Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill at Hillsborough Castle last year.Credit: AP

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng – the architect of Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests – is also expected to attend the event. His presence is likely to make human rights campaigners and national security hawks within Britain’s Conservative government deeply uncomfortable.

The King’s own relationship with China is a sensitive issue. He once described the Communist Party’s then-ruling elite as “appalling old waxworks” in controversial extracts from a diary that had been circulated to close aides following the UK’s handover of Hong Kong in 1997.

US first lady Jill Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron will join foreign kings and queens, princes and princesses, as well as Commonwealth heads of state and political leaders, at the historic ceremony next week, the first in Britain for 70 years.

O’Neill, who is vice president of the party and also attended Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, said she hoped her presence would help to “build good relations between the people of these islands” after this month marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement.

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) repeatedly plotted to attack members of the royal family, most notoriously when it blew up a yacht carrying Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979, killing the World War II hero and three others aboard, including two children. Mountbatten was Elizabeth’s second cousin and a mentor to Charles, who sobbed at his funeral.

Sinn Fein became the biggest party in the province last year, overtaking the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party and making O’Neill first minister-designate for the Northern Ireland government, which fell after the DUP’s decision to boycott parliament in protest of post-Brexit trading rules agreed between the UK and the European Union.

“We are living in a time of great change. A time to respect our differing and equally legitimate aspirations, a time to firmly focus on the future and the opportunities that the next decade will bring,” O’Neill said in a statement.

“I am an Irish republican. I also recognise there are many people on our island for whom the coronation is a hugely important occasion. I am committed to being a first minister for all, representing the whole community, building good relations between the people of these islands, and advancing peace and reconciliation through respectful and mature engagement.”

China’s Vice President Han Zheng is also attending the coronation.Credit: Bloomberg

Her decision had underlined a stark move from Sinn Fein to distance itself from a previously strict republican stance. The party was widely criticised for boycotting Queen Elizabeth’s landmark visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011 but the following year Martin McGuinness – a former IRA commander who became deputy first minister in the Northern Ireland government – shook hands with the Queen at Stormont.

Han Zheng, who is the new deputy to President Xi Jinping, is expected to fly to London next week for the ceremony, in a move that threatens a diplomatic storm.

He was in charge of China’s response to demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2019 in which thousands of campaigners were arrested, many were injured and some were shot and killed.

At the time, Han described the demonstrations as “extreme and destructive acts” that would not be tolerated.

Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, told The Times that it was a “slap in the face” for Britain to host a man who had helped to “destroy one of the freest and most prosperous cities in Asia”.

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