Close call on garden graffiti spares royal blush

MONACO may be smaller than Phoenix Park, but we need all the friends we can get in Europe right now so the red carpet was well and truly rolled out for Prince Albert.

After a trip to the Áras it was off to lay a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance for the emotional high point of a visit to mark the 50th anniversary of that of his parents, Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier in 1961.

However, some visitors are sadly not as respectful to the national dead as the Prince was, and there was a bit of a last-minute kerfuffle over what to do about a prominent piece of blue spray paint graffiti slap bang in the centre of the crescent-shaped wall which acts as the backdrop to the imposing statue that dominates the gardens.

With barely 20 minutes to go until the royal arrival, members of the defence forces were still trying to clean it off, but as time was running out emergency measures were called for and a rather large, and not very pretty, bush was quickly brought from another part of the gardens to cover up the offending eyesore.

So, the princely gaze was spared the spectacle, but let’s hope they don’t cut things so fine when the British Queen turns up next month.

Ireland has got itself a rather unfortunate reputation in Europe recently for hanging out with the wrong crowd — our bailout buddies Greece and Portugal don’t do us any favours, so it was nice to hob-nob with royalty — even if it is of a slightly Ruritanian variety.

Albert is perhaps not the most exciting member of the Grimaldi family, but then given the headlines his sisters Stephanie and Caroline are used to getting, maybe Monaco likes things that way. His three-day visit is acting as a handy warm-up routine for the big headline-grabbing national tours of Mrs Windsor and Barack Obama in May.

Accompanied by his fiancee and a business delegation, the 53-year-old ruler of 1.98sq km of some of the most prime real estate in the world rounded off the day with a banquet.

The entertainment was very tasteful and there was no need for the prince to reprise his star turn from his student days when he toured Europe as a member of his college Glee Club.