VOICELESS MARY LAST TO LEAVE

FORMER President Mary McAleese waited until after the hundreds of guests had left St Patrick’s Hall before she stepped out into the cobbled courtyard with her husband Martin.

She wore a purple coat, the colour favoured by bishops, teamed with black trousers and a pair of sharp black high heels.

When asked for her reaction to the Pope and Taoiseach’s speeches, Ms MaAleese croaked: ‘I’ve no voice.’

Mr McAleese intervened to say that his wife would be making ‘no comment’.