Lemass Tapes: Queen Mother wanted to visit Dublin Horse Show

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, a noted horse-racing fan, spent years trying to wrangle an invitation to the Royal Dublin Horse Show, the Lemass recordings reveal.

"On one occasion she threatened our ambassador in London that she would set off for Belfast and have her plane break down on the way so that she could get into Dublin in circumstances where we could not very well keep her out," said Lemass.

The possibility of an official visit by a member of the British Royal Family was one that exercised Sean Lemass frequently during his years as taoiseach, beginning from 1957.

The issue was raised from time to time by British ministers, but usually by those ministers who did not understand Ireland and were acting without authority, Lemass maintained.

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However, there was no question, Lemass said, of an official royal visit while Ireland was partitioned, but unofficially several of them did visit or had wanted to visit.

Society photographer

The issue became most acute when Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, married the society photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones in 1960, the tapes reveal

Armstrong-Jones's mother was Anne, Countess of Rosse, who lived in Birr Castle in Co Offaly and his sister, the Viscountess de Vesci, lived in Abbeyleix.

During Princess Margaret’s visit in 1965 to Abbeyleix House, an electricity transformer exploded on the edge of the de Vesci estate. The IRA was blamed for having cut down an electricity pole causing the incident.

Lemass described Princess Margaret’s visits as a “headache”. He had no intention of stopping her from coming, but neither was he going to encourage her “not for any reason other than recognition that we were going to have a security problem on our hands when she was here”.

"She should have come and gone as the wife of a man who had a residence in Ireland and wanted to visit his family without any ceremony attached to the visit. There would have been no question at all in that case, that is, if she was coming as Mrs Snowden. There was no official character in her visit and she got no official reception."