Last month I was extremely privileged to join with a panel of 6 esteemed historians in a meeting with HRH The Prince of Wales in Belfast City Hall. The location was significant because almost exactly 100 years previous, King George V (Charles’ great grandfather) visited Belfast to open Northern Ireland’s first parliament in the same building. Charles was acutely aware of his great grandfather’s contribution and invited historians to comment on the impact made by King George’s speech in the context of island-wide violence and tumultuous Irish politics.
The event will be commemorated by Belfast City Council on Tuesday 22nd June when a re-creation of the speech will be made for a live stream. There will also be an unveiling of two chairs, used on that day by King George V and Queen Mary which have since undergone some specialist conservation work. A talk on the matter will also be provided by the brilliant Dr Eamon Phoenix, and finally a performance of a specially commissioned play by Terra Nova productions which will explore the speech in more dramatic detail.
Had I been aware of all this before I started researching the episode I probably wouldn’t have written it, but nevertheless I’m here now and so are you – so here it is, Episode 16: The King’s Speech.