Should the Queen Have apologised to the Irish?

[thir]

- the Easter Rising is often cited, but that was an open rebellion against the lawful government, and Pearse and his followers were committing treason in just the same way that the French Revolutionaries, the American Rebels or the Bolsheviks were in their time.

'Legal' is actually one of those very interesting words. What makes something legal?
Because the lawmakers say so. What makes the lawmakers legal? Because they say so.

Was the Norman invasion of Ireland legal? And if so, what made it so?

Well, an English pope declared it legal for Henry the Second to invade Ireland, to convert it from the Celtic church to Roman catholic. Does that make it legal?

The other kings, and queen Elisabeth, simply wanted it. They were the (legal?) rulers but not over Ireland, so what made it legal? We stole it ourselves, so now it is ours?

America - was already occupied. Was it legal for the settlers to take it from the Indians? Was it legal for the Britsh to simply declare it theirs? With what right?

How long does it take for something to have lasted long enough to make it legal, by force of habit?
Or is it legal by consensus?
By force and arms?

I would venture to suggest that most acts of "suppression" by the English were carried out in order to preserve law and order in Ireland: it was violence and disorder they wished to suppress, not the Irish.

Law and order was what they had, more so than many countries. Violence and disorder is what you get when your force yourself on another culture and change it with violence.