I will be eternally grateful that I am, without debate, a citizen and not also a subject. I inherently value the right to choose all our leaders, and I strongly oppose the notion of inherited entitlement and any mystical ‘god’ or ‘history’ sanctified right to rule.

I reject completely the concept and more especially the practice of monarchism, despite all the pomp, pageantry, and militarism so recently on display in Britain. And this despite respect for the genuine public grief and affection so visibly displayed.

I was born into a family and a country that was republican to its very toenails. That republicanism was not, as many argue, the default position of a majority (but by no means all) of Irish people. Rather, it was due in no small measure to the very raw and very recent history that has deep roots in our psyche and our culture.

My grandfather, Thomas Carty took part in the 1916 Rising against the Crown and all it stood for in Ireland. For his ‘disloyalty’, he spent time in Knutsford prison, lost his job and his entitlements and was given a prison record.

From his prison diary, his drawings, his fascination with Celtic fairy tales and his letters to his daughters, it is clear that he was a gentle soul, but a soul nonetheless who could not accept the unchallengeable authority of that Crown.

Like so many hundreds of millions around the world, the Irish experience of the power, might and ruthlessness of the British monarchy (and its attendant state) could not have been more different than the image and storytelling following Queen Elizabeth’s death. 

In no way do I want to denigrate or disrespect the very real love and emotion expressed in Britain and elsewhere around the world at her passing. Clearly, many felt a huge sense of individual and collective loss and, most probably for much more than her death alone.

But it in no way softens me to the idea or the realities of monarchism, its sense of entitlement, privilege, atrophied conservatism, wealth, and superior ‘authority’. Britain’s choice of government is a matter for British people and for them alone…until it isn’t, a reality that has marked the world for many a century.

Yet, I must come clean, I have on many an occasion admired the woman that was Elizabeth. I have admired her willingness to use her position to protect and promote the welfare of (some selected) others, especially when it went against the spirit or behaviour of her ‘loyal’ government.

It was illustrated pointedly by her readiness to promote the peace and reconciliation agenda in part of her realm – Northern Ireland – and beyond, between Britain and Ireland. It was poignantly on display through her willingness to shake hands with those who had brought violent death to her own family. 

Her state visit to Ireland in 2011 was a triumph of substance and sincerity over the naysayers on both and all sides.

I have had one personal experience of Queen Elizabeth’s style when she gave an extended ‘audience’ to a delegation of Aboriginal Australian leaders in Buckingham Palace prior to an Australian visit.  Her preparation for the visit, her grasp of the issues involved and her willingness to actually hear Aboriginal concerns (and to subsequently act on them) was mightily impressive. 

Yet, we were briefed on how to bow, to call her ‘your majesty’ on first contact and subsequently ‘Maam’, a reality that generated no end of hilarity in our delegation (the sheep analogies abounded).  The entirely unnecessary pomposity around meeting her was belied by her own persona – for example, we were told she would wear white gloves – she didn’t!

Imagine bowing before George Vella and referring to him as ‘your majesty’ – an absolute impossibility in this Republic.

Monarchism amounts to little more than extreme royal nepotism, based around an imagined pedigree, inherited wealth, and privilege. It does nothing to promote equality, it is based on cementing and celebrating class and that supposed ‘pedigree’. 

That is not a political system that has any appeal to me.

The Times of Malta is not the platform in which to explore the various methods and moments through which Britain’s royal family obtained and maintained its power and wealth except to note that it was not through discussion, negotiation, compromise, and agreement. 

But that’s a whole other contentious and contested agenda.

That power to choose rather than inherit our leaders completely trumps the need for lavish, indefensibly expensive, and mega-hyped pageantry to generate awe and acquiescence. 

As has been done by many commentators in recent weeks, it is worth recalling the observations of that hugely influential English political activist and philosopher Thomas Paine of his country’s monarchy, that "a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right".