Absent presence: Mourning the Queen on Gibraltar National Day

11 Richard D.G. Irvine Richard Irvine is a senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews. His email is rdgi@ st-andrews.ac.uk. ‘Are you still going to the beach?’ We are standing in Casemates Square, the usual location of Gibraltar’s National Day rally. The square had been strewn only the day before with bunting and flags proudly displaying Gibraltar’s national colours, red and white. As news broke of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the decorations were hurriedly taken down. With the stage set in the process of being dismantled, the mood of anticipation was deflated. In its place, a sense of confusion: was it still appropriate to celebrate National Day in a time of mourning? Public events might be cancelled, but should you keep the restaurant reservations for lunch? Would people still go to the beach in the afternoon? Gibraltar National Day, 10 September, marks the anniversary of the 1967 referendum in which Gibraltarians – by an overwhelming margin of 12,138 votes to 44 – voted to remain under British sovereignty with self-governing institutions rather than pass under Spanish sovereignty (Garcia 1994: 147-149) (Fig. 1). National Day itself is a somewhat more recent creation, having been instituted in 1992 by the newly formed Self Determination for Gibraltar Group against the backdrop of the then Chief Minister, Joe Bossano, directly petitioning the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, making the case that the desire for free association with Britain was an exercise of Gibraltar’s self-determination and an act of decolonization. This case was not accepted, and Gibraltar remains on the UN list of non-self-governing territories to this day. The commemoration of this particular day – which was formally adopted as a national holiday in 1993 – has therefore always been an explicitly political and campaigning event as well as a day of national celebration (Haller 2000), an annual restatement of the demand that Gibraltar’s selfdetermination be respected and not ignored in negotiations between Britain and Spain. At first glance, Gibraltar National Day appears to be an anomaly. Many national days around the globe commemorate the day of independence from the colonial power; Gibraltar’s is distinctive in commemorating the vote to remain a British territory. Yet this contrast is not as stark as it appears. Crucially, National Day is an annual return to a point in time when the population of Gibraltar declared their self-determination over the territory where they lived – self-determination which expresses loyalty while simultaneously insisting that the interests and democratic will of those living in Gibraltar are not merely an adjunct to British control of a ‘military Rock’ (Stanton 1996). The engagement with British national symbols is therefore crucial to this self-presentation of a people British by their own will and on their own terms – and there is no symbol greater than the Crown. The death of the Queen two days before National Day created ritual uncertainty and a shift of mood. National Day events are occasions for the public demonstration of affection for and loyalty to the Crown. This theme would have been especially central during this Platinum Jubilee year of the Queen’s reign. How best should this loyalty and affection be expressed while mourning her death? Absent presence