The Irish Times Once Called The Monarchy 'Clowns' & Not Everyone Is Mourning The Queen
Queen Elizabeth II has died and not everyone is shedding a tear for her.
While many in the U.K. and around the world are sad about it, some people in former colonies such as Ireland, Nigeria, Kenya, Canada and India are actually happy to bury a woman who reminds them of some brutal times in their history.
It's not everyone in these countries, but "abolish the monarchy" calls are getting pretty loud on social media.
Nothing quite captures the mood better than a few sentences published in the Irish Times last year, which are being re-shared all over Twitter in the wake of the queen's death.
The original story was an opinion piece published about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, but the first few lines take some big swings at the monarchy as a whole.
"Having a monarchy next door is a little like having a neighbour who's really into clowns and has daubed their house with clown murals, displays clown dolls in each window and has an insatiable desire to hear about and discuss clown-related news stories," author Patrick Freyne wrote in that story.
"More specifically, for the Irish, it's like having a neighbour who's really into clowns and, also, your grandfather was murdered by a clown."
The Irish have plenty to be angry about. Queen Elizabeth II ruled during a period called The Troubles in Northern Ireland. A time when separatist and pro-British forces fought and killed each other in a brutal conflict that lasted almost 30 years.
They're also not the only ones celebrating the queen's death.
Others with ties to former British colonies also blasted the monarchy on Twitter, and some of the videos and memes are harsh AF.
\u201cIrish and Black Twitter roasting Queen Elizabeth:\u201d— Jack Russell (@Jack Russell) 1662664087
"Where's the Avengers Endgame edit with Ireland, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Ghana etc. teaming up to celebrate the death of the queen?" wrote one user.
\u201cBlack Twitter is on fire today \ud83d\ude02\u201d— Port Misery, Chaotic Olivia Stan (@Port Misery, Chaotic Olivia Stan) 1662662749
The British monarchy also has a centuries-old history of slavery in many of its former colonies in Western Africa, and the wounds were still fresh on Twitter after the queen died.
Kenyan author and Cornell professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi summed up a lot of the hard feelings in one tweet on Thursday.
"If the queen had apologized for slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism and urged the Crown to offer reparations for the millions of lives taken in her/their names, then perhaps I would do the human thing and feel bad," he wrote. "As a Kenyan, I feel nothing. This theater is absurd."
Queen Elizabeth II didn't reign during the British rule of India, but many there were still glad to see her go. They also brought up that she'd been holding onto the Kohinoor, a gigantic diamond taken from India, for many years and never gave it back.
\u201c@Africa_Archives The Koh-i-Nur, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing 105.6 carats (21.12 g). It is part of the British Crown Jewels. The diamond is currently set in the Crown of the Queen Mother. It was also taken from India. It has estimated to cost over $200 million.\u201d— Africa Archives \u2122 (@Africa Archives \u2122) 1662646015
Others blasted the queen for the British Empire's long and bloody history with Indigenous peoples in Canada.
\u201cI'm an Indigenous person, so my feelings about the death of the Queen are different from others. While she was Queen, atrocities were committed by the British and the Commonwealth. Atrocities that she did not try to stop or even denounce.\u201d— Christian Big Eagle (@Christian Big Eagle) 1662659092
"The Queen is dead," wrote one user, referring to the famous song by English rock band The Smiths. "Long live EVERY INDIGENOUS PERSON who survived despite the British Empire's best efforts to destroy and assimilate them."
There were even people in the U.K. who weren't particularly sad to see the queen go. One young woman went viral on TikTok for basically shrugging off news that the queen was on the verge of death.
"I'm not like, the biggest fan of the queen, or just like the monarchy in general, so I wasn't that upset," she told CNN.
@julianhagins #cnn #queenelizabeth #live #fyp #thequeen
When asked why she was no fan of the monarchy, she said it's "mainly to do with British colonial history," and with recent events involving Prince Andrew.
"It's been quite shady," she said.
The queen died on Thursday at age 96 and her son is now King Charles III.
