Clappy days for the royals
Kate and Meg court attention at Wimbo
THE Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex have a ball at Wimbledon.
Kate and Meghan, both 36, chatted in the Royal Box as they watched Angelique Kerber stun Serena Williams to win the women’s final yesterday.
And the appearance echoed Princess Diana’s with the Duchess of York in 1988. Celebs there included actress Emma Watson, rapper Stormzy, F1 ace Lewis Hamilton, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, golfer Tiger Woods, ex-newsreader Sir Trevor Mcdonald and singer Alesha Dixon.
Someone should tell suited Emma only the players have to wear all white…
amy.sharpe@sundaymirror.co.uk
ROYAL COUPLE LEADING THE WAY IN RECONCILIATION
THE opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference, according to Nobel prize-winning humanitarian Elie Wiesel.
I was reminded of Wiesel’s philosophy last week when I inadvertently crossed paths with royal couple Meghan and Harry, who chose Dublin as their first foreign trip together.
My usual route down the city’s Camden Street was blocked off for their imminent arrival for lunch at well-known Delahunt’s restaurant.
Barriers were erected all around the roads, ostensibly to hold back the anticipated crowds.
But there were no crowds. No throngs of excited spectators, so wild with the thrill of glimpsing royalty they had to be held back.
Instead, there were a few handfuls of curious locals and passers-by. The same numbers would have gathered if they’d heard Conor Mcgregor was inside, or Saoirse Ronan.
While the two-day visit was fanfared by the media and then fawned over by the elite, the general feeling amongst the public was more one of benign interest.
CELEBRTIES
The pair were welcomed here more as celebrities than as representatives of what has been described as an institution that is “the apex of Britishness”.
They’re not referred to with reverence as The Duke and Duchess of Sussex – in fact, most people wouldn’t even know who that was.
They’re simply Harry and Meghan – the redhead rebel royal and his Hollywood actress wife, who we recognise more as lawyer Rachel on sexy legal drama Suits than we do in her new role, as (effectively) a real-life Princess.
We were more interested in her wardrobe than anything else. She wore Roland Mouret, Givenchy and Manolo Blahnik shoes – maybe she’d give a nod to an Irish designer on a return visit.
It’s only five years since she was promoting cocktails in Diceys, the nightclub down the lane from where she dined with her new husband on Wednesday.
Could she ever have imagined then how her life would turn out? It’s a relative-rags-toriches story that allows us all to dream.
But today, celebrities are the new royals and so it makes sense royals are the new celebrities.
There are even celebrity dynasties in the US – the House of Kardashian and the House of Trump. Harry and Meghan are – literally – the perfect marriage of both groups, which may go some way to explaining why 41 million people across the US and the UK watched their wedding in May. In Ireland, the interest was again, low key, with 140,000 viewers despite much hype by RTE.
The couple have embraced progressive values to such an extent they are now the epitome of the modern royal couple.
They tick all the “right-on” boxes – Meghan is divorced, a feminist activist, and, at 37 next month, is older than her 33-year-old husband.
She is said to be Britain’s first biracial royal – although some historians claim this honour goes to the 18th century Queen Charlotte.
Regardless, commentators agree
her joining the royal family will go a long way in steps to repair race relations and multiculturalism.
When the couple had a garden party in the British Embassy during their stay, they invited all the fashionably liberal figures in politics and society, and they were all happy to attend and bask in the couple’s reflected glory.
They came in a week when it was easy to feel sorry for the English – between getting knocked out of the World Cup, their government almost collapsing over Brexit and the horrific Novichok poisonings.
Their across-the board welcome is a sign of a more advanced Ireland, one in which we don’t spit resentment at the latest monarchs in an outdated institution.
Not 30 years ago, Harry’s father Prince Charles said: “I’d love to visit Ireland, but they might blow me up.”
After first coming here in 1995, he learned to love the country he once associated with family tragedy – the killing of his favourite uncle Lord Mountbatten in 1979.
APOLOGY
When the Queen visited in 2011, it was the first time the head of the royal family had come to these shores in 100 years. Her arrival was subject to such high security that 120 armed British officers went everywhere with her.
While here, she gave the nearest thing to an apology to the Irish for such terrible times in Ireland, such as the Famine, during which Queen Victoria failed to help us leading to the death of a million people. She said: “It is a sad and regrettable reality that through history, our islands have experienced more than their fair share of heartache, turbulence and loss.
“With the benefit of historical hindsight, we should have done things differently, or not at all.”
Harry and Meghan are leading a new royalty, a couple that are clearly more in touch with real life and empathetic than any of their predecessors, and who are showing by actions – not words – how they are leaving past prejudices and old ways behind.
It’s time we left ours behind too.