Queen Elizabeth Denies Twelve-year-old’s Request for Return of the Six Counties

By R. Bryan Willits, Editorial Assistant
June / July 2016

After learning about the Easter Rising and subsequent Troubles, Reese Kilbride, a 12-year-old Irish student from Portmar- nock, Co. Dublin, wrote a letter to the Queen of England in February asking that she kindly return the six counties of Northern Ireland to the Republic.

“They had the six counties, they didn’t give back all of Ireland,” Kilbride told Irish radio station Newstalk. “So I thought they should give it back.”

Kilbride even included a picture that he drew of himself, his friend, and the Queen standing together in front of Buckingham Palace. To his surprise, an official response on Buckingham Palace letterhead came in April. The letter, signed by the Queen’s deputy correspondent Jennie Vine, was ultimately a letter of thanks and declined to return the counties.

“The Queen has asked me to thank you for your recent letter in which you wished to tell Her Majesty that you have been learning about the history of the Easter Rising 1916,” it read.

“While it was thoughtful of you to let The Queen know of your views, I must explain that this is not a matter in which Her Majesty would intervene.”

“Her Majesty has asked me to thank you for the pictures you drew especially for her,” it added. ♦

Leave a Reply