How Pat won royal approval

THE night before, Pat O’Connell couldn’t sleep.

One of seven English Market stallholders chosen to meet Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit to Ireland in 2011, he tossed and turned, wondering what a fishmonger from Cork would find to say to this being from an entirely different world.

On a busy day, when you approach O’Connell’s enormous stall, the place is crackling with life, wisecracks volleying back and forth across the counter as customers of all hues and stripes call out orders and, at the very heart of it, Pat, head invariably thrown back, roaring with laughter. But, surely, that’s no way to treat a queen?