A man who received a reply from Queen Elizabeth to a letter urging her to condemn the sectarian murders of three Catholic children at Ballymoney, Co Antrim, in July has criticised unionists for deploring her condemnation of the murders. The queen expressed her abhorrence at the events leading up to the deaths of the Quinn brothers, and her admiration for the way the British army and the RUC had upheld the Parades Commission's decisions.
She was replying to a 29-yearold Strabane man living in England, who did not want to be named. Mr Andrew Dent, special assistant to the queen's private secretary, signed the letter.
The queen, it is stated in the letter, ". . . shares your abhorrence at the events which led to the deaths of the three young Quinn boys in Ballymoney, and hopes that, in accordance with government policy, an accommodation can be reached on the `parades' issue which is satisfactory to all concerned." The queen, it added, "greatly admired the skill and professionalism demonstrated by the security forces as a whole, which eventually ensured that the decisions of the Parades Commission were upheld".
But the statement led to strong criticism from a unionist and leading Orangemen, Mr David McNarry. He said that Buckingham Palace was breaching constitutional protocol by adopting a political agenda.
Yesterday the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, urged the palace to bring "staff into line" for being involved in a letter which praised the Parades Commission's Drumcree decision.
Mr McNarry had expressed his unhappiness at what he described as "unkind inferences". In July, as the standoff continued at Drumcree, the three Quinn children, Richard, Mark and Jason, were killed after an arson attack on their home. The Orange Order denied there was a link between the protest and the murders. He said there were "far too many assumptions and conclusions" in the letter and he did not believe they were the views of the monarch. The man who received the letter said it showed quite clearly that she felt there was a link between events leading to the "tragic and shocking" murder of the children.
"I had implored the queen to declare publicly that such murders of the three Quinn children play no part in anyone's definition of loyalty to her, and she did," he said. He pointed out that he did not use the word "abhorrent" or the phrase "events leading up to the murders" in his letter.
"They were the queen's words, and they were merely an emotional expression of how she felt about the tragedy which moved me to write the letter to her," he said.