IRELAND’S President Catherine Connolly in England, Britain’s King Charles in the north at the same time. Surely no coincidence?

After all, these visits are planned long in advance, in this case not least so that Connolly could meet Charles in Buckingham Palace and invite him to visit Ireland.

He had to be available. It would have been a fiasco if Connolly had turned up at Buckingham Palace only to find he was in the Titanic Quarter. Not a chance.

Instead, all carefully choreographed weeks in advance.

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There is a difference in the visits though. Britain‘s king walks around with a perpetual grin on his face, viewing native cultural displays of music and dancing just like you’ve seen him and his late mother do in countless former colonies, be it New Zealand, India or Canada. Unfortunately this isn’t a former colony – yet.

Connolly, on the other hand, is an elected president and someone, let’s remember, elected with the highest popular vote in Ireland’s history. She makes political speeches and she did so on her visit to England.

Her most important speech of the visit was at a reception in the Irish embassy in Belgravia. You can watch it on YouTube, like all........

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