The new King Charles III is traveling through the four nations of the United Kingdom this week, but it is in Northern Ireland, where he is expected on Tuesday, that the most important test of reconciliation awaits him.
Certainly Scotland, where the monarch was on Monday, has every intention of organizing a new referendum on its independence, but the armed resistance of the province to the crown faded centuries ago.
Northern Ireland has only known peace since 1998, and it remains fragile.
Deeply devoted to Queen Elizabeth II, who died last Thursday, Northern Irish unionists fear that their cause, belonging to the United Kingdom, is more threatened than ever, in a political context disrupted by Brexit and the historic progress of nationalists Republicans, supporters of reunification with the neighboring Republic of Ireland.