“She was really a fixed star in our lives,” said Jeananne Maxwell, a social worker who had taken to the lawn outside City Hall on Monday to pay her respects with about 300 other people in front of big screens broadcasting the U.S. funeral of the Queen. “We are here because of the great respect we had for her.” ‘A fixed star in our lives’: Jeananne and Mark Maxwell watch the funeral from Belfast City Hall. Photo: Paul McErlane/The Guardian He added: “For Northern Ireland he kept hope in our hearts. I hope because he treated everyone as important, regardless of your background or religion, and that’s how it should be.” A short distance away, three generations of the Coen family had come with blankets, breakfast sausages, tea and prosecco to celebrate a life loved. Grandma Joey hugged her daughter Joanne and granddaughters Violet and Daisy tightly, wiping away tears as the final post marked the final moments of the official and historic events in London. “It was very emotional, very sad. I sang every hymn. It was just wonderful,” said Joy as the crew of Royal Navy sailors began to pull the carriage carrying the Queen’s coffin on its penultimate journey. “I just hope King Charles picks up where his mother left off. We only go through this road once and we must all be together,” he added. She and her family had come from Dromore in County Down to “feel the atmosphere” and the unity they felt had enveloped Northern Ireland last week, said Joanne, a history teacher. The night before she had attended a service at her local church jointly by a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister in honor of the Queen. “They both did the blessing together. Both communities participated. It stood for what he stood for, what he valued, all equal,” Joanne said. Simon Freedman from Coleraine watches the funeral from Belfast City Hall. Photo: Paul McErlane/The Guardian Simon Freedman, 51, a bus driver with Belfast’s Translink, dressed in a T-shirt commemorating the Queen’s jubilee, sat solemnly by himself throughout the ceremony. His mother died of Covid in April 2020 and the Queen’s funeral brought back memories. “We were not allowed to have a funeral. We had 10 people and 10 minutes. My mom was a royal, she would have canceled anything, even a vacation, for this. It was touching to watch the funeral. But it was fantastic to see everyone here coming together.” Across the sectarian divide at Falls Road, there was a mixture of indifference and recognition of the scale of the event. Beneath murals commemorating those who died in the Troubles, a shopkeeper said he would not attend the funeral. “That’s their culture, that’s ours, just different,” he said. But the Queen’s name still had the power to bridge communities in this part of Belfast divided by a so-called peace wall. “She was a beautiful woman. He’s still human and he was for everyone, not just different sides and different religions,” said 68-year-old Ann. “It’s so sad to lose someone like her.” Above the peace wall, Mark, 53, a former soldier, stopped with his family to take pictures of the impressive array of flowers under a mural of the Queen on Crimea Street. “It was an honor to serve under her. But it wasn’t just for the people on one side, it was everybody,” he said. “Even members of Sinn Féin are there. What that tells you is that she was respected by everyone, regardless of their beliefs.”
