Legendary British rock star Morrissey, a long-time strident critic of the British Royal Family, has renewed his venomous attacks on the Windsor Monarchy amidst Queen Elizabeth II’s historic visit to the Irish Republic.

In a letter to the Dublin-based music magazine Hot Press, Morrissey –whose parents emigrated from Ireland to Manchester in 1959 -- complained that the royal family is entirely against any notion of democracy.

He also said the visit to Ireland forms part of a new palace PR campaign to re-invent the Windsors.

Morrissey expanded his vitriol from the Irish trip to the very existence of the monarchy itself.

The very existence of the queen and her now enormous family -- all supported by the British taxpayer whether the British taxpayer likes it or not -- is entirely against any notion of democracy, and is against freedom of speech, the former Smith’s lead singer, wrote.

The message from the Queen will be the same as ever: who we are born to is more important than what we achieve in life. The full meaning of the monarchy is, like the queen herself, a complete mystery to most people.

Morrissey also said that the Queen should return the six counties of Ulster (which comprise the British-ruled Northern Ireland) back to the “Irish people, allowing Ireland to be a nation once again.”

Regarding Ulster, he added: “The fact that she has not done so is Fascism in full flow. What else could it be? Name one other European country that is controlled by its neighbor?”

Perhaps most inflammatory, Morrissey said the Queen was indirectly responsible for the death of Bobby Sands, the IRA prisoner who died after engaging in a hunger strike to protest prison conditions in 1981.

As recently as the turn of the 1980s, the Queen supported [former Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher by not dismissing Thatcher as she allowed hunger strikers to die at the Maze Prison, most famously Bobby Sands, who was 27 years old, Morrissey wrote.

As Sands starved to death, in protest at being tagged a 'criminal' and not a 'political prisoner' by the Thatcher government, the Queen sat in her Palace and said nothing. If the Queen had any human feelings for the Sands family or other hunger strikers then she did not express them.”

United kingdom