UR TV CAST

Today a book of condolence will record the thoughts of the 100 or so residents of the village and surrounding farms, and any passing tourists.But yesterday there were no tears or elaborate bouquets That would not appear to be Mey’s style. Most villagers, on hearing news of the royal death, were quietly sad but not demonstrative.The talk here, and across Scotland, was of a Queen Mother very much their own, not a socialite but a Scottish loyalist who once apparently told an anti-English South African that she understood his problem. “You see, I’m Scottish,” she is supposed to have said.At church yesterday, Rev Iain Macnee spoke briefly to a handful of waiting journalists before going ahead with his normal Easter Sunday service. Yes, he said, he had known the Queen Mother, in so far as any “commoner” could have known her “There’s no doubt that her faith was simple but profound. It was something that came from the heart,” he said.He spoke, too, of her mischievous sense of humour and human touch, and tried to explain the affection for his parish. “She liked to be able to retreat from the hustle and bustle of London,” he said “This was the place where people could get close to her.

She would stop and speak and had a genuine interest in them.”At the village shop, Myra Murphy, the owner, said she was sad, but the death had not been unexpected. “I think people here were proud of Mey’s association with the Queen Mother,” she said. “She came here to recharge the batteries and we gave her a great deal of privacy Anybody asking questions was fobbed off. But we always knew when she was here.”There are plans to open the castle to visitors as the Queen Mother had decided to donate it to the nation. The castle was begun by the Fourth Earl of Caithness in 1566, expanded in the 19th century, then saved from ruin by the Queen Mother.

To open it up would significantly boost tourism in the area.. Martin McGuinness used an Easter Sunday address in the Irish Republic yesterday to proclaim that Sinn Fein had “entered the end phase” of its campaign for Irish unity. It is part of a republican attempt to present Sinn Fein as the party of idealism in contrast to what Mr McGuinness described as the “corruption, sleaze, mismanagement and neglect” of political parties in the Republic.The major southern parties have ruled out any question of coalition with Sinn Fein, saying the party is unacceptable in government so long as it is linked with the IRA. Sinn Fein has responded that it acknowledges the Irish army as the official army of the state.However, evidence of another military organisation was unmistakably on show in Stranorlar, Donegal, as Mr McGuinness marched through the town behind a militaristic colour party.He walked just yards behind a dozen marching men in khaki tunics and trousers and army-style boots. The men, who wore black berets and dark glasses, responded to orders called out by one of their number.In his speech, Mr McGuinness said: “More and more people are recognising that we have entered the end phase of our struggle. I earnestly believe that we have begun the countdown to a united Ireland. There is much work to do but we believe that we are in the home stretch.”Republicans, meanwhile, continued to deny claims from security sources that the IRA was responsible for the recent break-in at Special Branch offices in Belfast.Four men and two women were arrested in Belfast and Londonderry on Saturday.

One of them is Bobby Storey, a senior republican who has been to prison for IRA offences.Denying IRA involvement in the incident, republicans pointed out that the retiring Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, had several days ago described the break-in as “an inside job”.. With the death of the Queen Mother, so the received wisdom seems to have it, nothing inside royal circles will ever be the same again. The grand old matriarch has gone and, with her, the emotional adhesive holding together Britain’s dysfunctional first family. But, more than that, the final repository for all the fine old traditional values that underpin the anachronistic institution which is our monarchy has been shattered Untune that string and hark what discord follows Bring on the republic. Bring on the republic.Certainly the dynamic inside the Royal Family will change. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, as she was uniquely titled, was certainly the centre of the family. The disappearance of Granny’s icy disapproval may, perhaps, remove a significant check on bad behaviour among junior royals.But did it go any further? Since the Queen Mother’s death on Saturday, republican circles have been febrile with speculation that the departure of the woman whose intuitive skills guided the monarchy through its three greatest crises in the 20th century – the abdication, the Second World War and the Diana d?cle – could now spell the beginning of the end for the monarchy.She embodied continuity, stability and commitment.