Irish PM’S partner under fire for Harry Potter joke
‘Highly insulting’ social media posts made during service criticised as ‘embarrasing’ at home
THE partner of the Irish prime minister has been criticised after comparing the King’s Coronation to Harry Potter during the ceremony.
Dr Matt Barrett, who joined Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach, at the ceremony, was accused of “embarrassing” the Irish with “highly insulting” social media posts made on Instagram during the service.
He posted a photograph of the newly crowned King wearing the St Edward’s Crown and compared it to the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter books.
“Was genuinely half expecting it to shout ‘GRYFFINDOR’,” he wrote.
The existence of the photographs and jokes about the service, posted to his 350 followers on the day, came to light in The Irish Times.
Paul Costelloe, an Irish designer, has condemned the social media posts as “highly insulting” to the Royal family and “very embarrassing” for the Irish.
The posts also included a picture taken from the Taoiseach’s car while in the VIP motorcade to the Coronation ceremony, while on the Mall, over which he wrote: “Holy s—, I think I’m accidentally crowned King of England.”
While in Westminster Abbey, Dr Barrett also commented on the official Order of Service, available for anyone to read online, and joked about the wording. One of the entries explained what happened between the Queen’s crowning and her enthronement, during which she would be presented with regalia.
He quoted the liturgy, saying: “The Queen’s sceptre and rod are brought from the altar by the Right Rev and Right Hon the Lord Chartres GCVO and the Right Rev Rose Hudson Wilkin CD MBE, Bishop of Dover. The Queen touches them in turn.” Then he drew a green line around the latter sentence and added the comment: “Sounds like the script to a good night, tbh [to be honest].” He also drew attention to the title of one of the participants in the list of the King and Queen’s procession entering the Abbey.
Dr Barrett highlighted the title of the Right Reverend James Newcome, who is known as “Clerk of the Closet”, in orange and quipped that he “had this job until my early 20s”.
Mr Costelloe, who worked as a personal designer for Princess Diana from 1983 until her death in 1997, told The Sunday Independent that he thought Dr Barrett should publicly apologise, but not the Taoiseach.
He said: “They should have turned their phones off before they went in and Leo should have told him to put his phone away.” The designer said Dr Barrett’s behaviour was an “unbelievable carry-on” and that “it will probably appear in the English papers”.
He added: “For people living over here, it puts you in a very embarrassing situation.
“I think it’s terribly hard to make excuses for that sort of behaviour. You can say it’s amusing and all, but you can’t do that type of thing.
“You have to be so careful over here. There is still this ‘Irish-english’ thing and they love finding something.”
The Irish designer added: “Now they have got material to say ‘look how we [the Irish] don’t know how to behave in such circumstances.’
“We are back to the ditches and the fields. It’s highly insulting. You can say it’s amusing but it’s just terrible… and it’s a shame that something like this has happened when the [British-irish] relationship has come so far. Obviously, Matthew thought it was a great joke.”
The Coronation marked the first time that an Irish leader was present at the crowning of a British monarch since Daniel O’connell, the political leader, attended Queen Victoria’s service in 1838.