Lord Mountbatten of Burma was killed by an explosion on his yacht off the Republic's coast. For Catholics, the monarchy and the Queen were a symbol of what they viewed as British occupiers in the North. Now you have this inflection point with the death of Queen Elizabeth and a new king coming at a time when the political landscape in Northern Ireland is also shifting. The question is whether we're now going to see an acceleration of the movement of Northern Ireland away from the United Kingdom towards unification with the Irish Republic.
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth today will be one of the most extraordinary public spectacles of the last several decades in Britain, accompanied by an outpouring of sadness, reverence and respect.
But the end of the queen’s 70-year reign has also prompted long-delayed conversations about the future of the Commonwealth and of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom.
Guest: Mark Landler, the London bureau chief for The New York Times.
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