Queen Elizabeth’s funeral: ‘We had to come out to share the experience’

Jenny Hampton had not yet got a chance to pay her respects at Hillsborough Castle so travelled to it over several hours before the funeral. “I didn’t get a chance to come throughout the week and I just felt today I really needed to come down here, just to share with everybody and just be part of the whole event,” she said.

“I just feel very much that we have had a big loss with the Queen - she is very special to everybody. She was everybody’s granny.”

Graeme Harrison from Hillsborough also attended the castle shortly before the funeral service. “It is really important to pay our final respects to the Queen for 70 years of selfless service,” he said.

Together with his young family, he was planning to watch the service at the large screen erected in the grounds of St Malachy’s Parish Church on the town’s main street.

“It is nice, almost, to celebrate and to pay our final respects, just in person. The community spirit in Hillsborough has been really good over the last week. I think it is just a nice way to end the last week.”

Leanne Spencer travelled from Annahilt with her husband and children to watch the event in Hillsborough.

“I just thought it would be a really special place to watch the funeral and that it is a great opportunity to be with the community, considering that Hillsborough is the place that has a residence of the royal family,” she said.

“It would be something that the children, and us together as a family, will remember forever; a real historic event, and also something that is a bit more exciting that sitting at home and watching it.”

Ojo and Joy Emmanuel from Commonwealth nation Nigeria, attended the screening in Lisburn city centre.

While there is now global debate about the history of colonisation by western nations, Ojo says that “on the whole” The Queen is “generally well respected in Nigeria, though there are mixed feelings”.

He added: “For me I look at her strength as a woman, how she was able to carry the UK all through difficult times; looking at Covid, the recessions and all through the Ukraine war, the fires in France - she has been a good intermediary and helping out where necessary.”

His wife, Joy, took inspiration from the Queen as a woman. “Personally I think she is very warm,” she said, reflecting on her media appearances during her Platinum Anniversary. For her, the Queen stands as a woman she can easily identify with. “I can sort of know how it is to manage a family with all the responsibilities on her shoulders - she really did well,” she added.

James Rea from Lisburn served in the Royal Irish Rangers for 16 years. He too joined the crowd watching the funeral in Lisburn.

He felt it was important to watch the funeral service in public, complete in Royal Irish blazer and beret, despite receiving treatment in hospital earlier the same morning. His motivation was “because, like the rest of my comrades, we all respected the Queen.”

James passionately believed the Queen had made a huge difference to conflict in the province, noting how “she left Northern Ireland and went down south and spoke”.

He added: ”She did step forward with respect for the soldiers and the war taking place - between us north and south - and that brought peace, I believe, to Northern Ireland.” 

Harry Doran was another veteran who attended the Lisburn screening. He served six years in the Royal Engineers and then 13 years as an RUC Reservist.

“I thought it would be really nice to be in company - to all show our respects - because she was a ..........she was a great woman,” he said, his voice faltering with emotion.

“And really she is due all our respect,” he added. “She is the only Queen I have ever known.” He acknowledged that he was emotional over her death, having fond memories of her even as a child. He was a pupil at Finaghy Primary School at the time of her coronation. ”And we all got these pencil cases with Smarties in them and the Queen’s face on the front. Those are the first real memories I have of her.”