‘[P]ressmen … have ere now lent their prestige and influence to the attempt to arouse public interest in the sickening details of this Feast of Flunkeyism … this ghastly farce now being played out before our eyes. … [We take] this opportunity of hurling at the heads of all the courtly mummers who grovel at the shrine of royalty … contempt and hatred … We, at least, are not loyal men; we confess to having more respect and honour for the raggedest child of the poorest labourer in Ireland today than for any, even the most virtuous, descendant of the long array of murderers, adulterers and madmen who have sat upon the throne of England.’

• James Connolly

‘The toady who crawls through the mire of self-abasement to enable him to bask in the smile of royalty is as much the victim of a diseased organism, and as great a danger to the community, as is the lunatic who has to be put under restraint in the interests of public safety.’

• Keir Hardie