FOLLOWING the visible firmness of the handshake between Britain’s Prince Charles and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, the visit of the Prince and his wife Camilla to Ireland has been transformed into an occasion of peace and reconciliation.

THE ATLANTIC breakers of the western seaboard have a romantic purity. Bathing in waters that stretch for 3,000 miles gives an illusion of health and well-being, of immersion in a timeless infinity.