Queen comes fishing for Cork trader to sign photo

THE wise-cracking Irish fishmonger who made the Queen laugh out loud has been asked to autograph one of her favourite photographs of her historic visit.

British ambassador Julian King has asked Cork’s English Market trader Pat O’Connell to sign the snap which captured him sharing a joke with Queen Elizabeth II as she visited his stall on the final day of her state visit in May.

Mr King also asked Mr O’Connell to pen a short personal note, fuelling hopes that it may become part of the Queen’s personal collection.

A British embassy spokesman confirmed last night the photograph has been sent to Buckingham Palace, and that officials were “delighted” to receive it. He could not comment on whether it will be hung in the palace.

Mr O’Connell said he was honoured to be asked to sign the photo.

“I just wrote that I was happy the visit was such a success,” he said.

“I told the Queen that it was my 30th wedding anniversary in a few days and that the last time I was this nervous was the morning of my wedding.”

Mr O’Connell then picked up a particularly ugly monkfish and told the Queen, who had attended her grandson William’s wedding to Kate Middleton a week earlier, that it is nicknamed “the mother-in-law fish”. The clearly relaxed monarch threw back her head and laughed out loud.

Killarney-based photographer Valerie O’Sullivan, who was covering the visit with Maxwell’s photo agency, fired off three shots.

“Knowing Pat, I knew he was going to do something hilarious,” she said.

“But the pressure was on and security was very tight. I knew I had something but it wasn’t until I got back to the media centre and saw the shot that people said: ‘You got it’.

“I think it captured the essence of Cork.”

Seasoned royal watchers, including some of Britain’s royal correspondents, described it as one of the most remarkable images they have ever seen of the Queen.

It was flashed around the world and printed in hundreds of newspapers.

Mr O’Connell said the Queen is surrounded by pomp and ceremony everywhere she goes.

“But here, she was treated as a normal person, with normal conversation and a bit of a laugh,” he said.

“I think she picked up on how relaxed and friendly Cork people are.”

He said the visit, and that photograph, helped put Cork, and the English Market, on the tourist map, boosting market footfall by up to 40%.

“Any tourist that comes in to the market spends money in the city and that has to be a good thing,” he said.