AN ABERYSTWYTH publican who was part of a protest which made international news after forcing the Queen to cancel an engagement for the first time in history has said he has no regrets and would do it all again.

This Tuesday marked 20 years since the Queen visited Aberystwyth in 1996, a visit which would make news worldwide and starkly divide opinion in the town.

After attending an engagement at the National Library, the Queen was due to officially open the new Glaciology Centre in the university’s Institute of Earth Studies.

But this engagement was cancelled at the last minute on the advice of her security advisers and police — the first and last time she has had to do so in the UK — after three students burst through a police cordon overlooking the entrance to the centre, and six eggs were found on one protester.

One of the protesters who appeared on the front page of the Cambrian News at the time, was Iestyn Evans, 42, manager and licensee of Yr Hen Lew Du, Bridge Street. He said this week that his views remained that the Queen should not have been invited to open the building.

Speaking to the Cambrian News, he said: “As I remember it, she was turning right along the road to the National Library when some protesters jumped the barrier and got in front of the car.

“After that, she was meant to be opening something else up top, so everyone went up to protest again, but she never got there.”

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