Surely we’ve moved on and can enjoy the royal wedding from a distance
NOVEMBER 16, 2010. The engagement had just been announced of Prince William and his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton, and the happy couple were smiling and posing for the cameras in an interview that was being broadcast live around the world.
In this paper’s newsroom that afternoon, most of the female staff spontaneously gathered around the TV screens, mesmerised by Kate’s glossy locks, her blue Issa dress which managed to be both regal and totally ordinary at the same time, and of course her massive sapphireand-diamond sparkler, which poignantly, we were told, belonged to the motherin-law she would never meet.
Out of his office strode the then-editor, who surveyed the sizeable huddle around the TV, then turned on his heel and returned to his office, where a rapid rethink of the following day’s paper ensued. The finished edition included a seven-page special on the impending nuptials, focusing on everything from the ring, to the proposal, to speculation about what the bride-to-be would wear.
The editor had identified, astutely, that
Irish people, and Irish women in particular, have a special place in their hearts for the royals. And that’s not a new thing: I remember working on the checkouts in an empty supermarket on the morning Princess Diana was buried, listening to the manager complain bitterly that he should have just shut up shop for the day, seeing as everyone was at home watching the funeral.
The royals are different to other celebrities: they are woven into the fabric of our Irish lives. And we can enjoy them from a safe distance: we can marvel at the over-the-top glamour of the spectacle, from the golden carriages to the prancing horses to the frocks and tiaras, free from worrying about who’s going to pay for it. That’s someone else’s bill to foot.
I’m not especially fascinated by the royals, but I’ll be glued to the TV as Harry and Meghan tie the knot on Saturday. After all, this is history in the making, not to mention being the best soap opera in town: will Meghan’s dad turn up after all? Will her half-sister say anything else mean about her? What other Markle family skeletons will get an airing?
But enjoying all the drama doesn’t mean we’ve suddenly forgotten about 800 years of history. It just means that most of us, thankfully, have moved on.
That’s why it’s so maddening to see the Inishowen Gateway Hotel in Buncrana being forced to cancel its proposed wedding party and then apologise for “any offence caused”, after it was inundated with angry phone calls. We’ve also had to listen to Sinn Féin carping about RTÉ showing the event, though I’d be willing to bet that more viewers will tune in on Saturday than for the party’s Ard Fheis. It might be time for politicians who see themselves as representing ‘the people’ to ask themselves if they really know what the people want.