From pomp to pigs on Presidential State visit
A tour of an Oxfordshire farm pioneering a more humane form of animal rearing brought Michael D Higgins back to his agricultural roots, but the spring sunshine meant he did not need to slip into the specially prepared presidential Wellington boots, which were waiting should the weather worsen.
As they toured the enclosures, the sound of the pigs and lambs was drowning out the chatter of the presidential party, so all that could be heard at one point was ‘Oink, oink, blaaah, sustainability, Oink, Oink, blaaah, forage, Oink, Oink, blaaah, the pig’s colon…”
But Sabina Higgins seemed engrossed in the conversation, certainly more than her husband did, and it is fair to say the President’s wife has emerged as the surprise star of the trip.
Always immaculate in specially designed outfits, she got along famously with Queen at Windsor, and yesterday revealed herself to be an expert on pig-related matters. Truly a renaissance woman.
“I have a book called The Pig, I’ll send you a copy, it’s all about this wonderful creature,” Mrs Higgins trilled to one of the farm managers.
Animals and politicians do always mix well, and being a veteran political animal, Michael D seemed to sense this, and left the petting to his wife when the pair were presented with a lamb to hold.
Famously, Margaret Thatcher was photographed kissing a calf in the 1979 British general election. It died within days. But the lamb to the altar of presidential publicity looked a plucky little thing and Sabina was clearly taken with the two day old cutie.
Then it was on to the chickens, who turned out to be surprisingly psychologically complex, as one of the farmers explained: “All chickens think they’re jungle fowl. They are hardwired to like trees.”
The chickens are allowed to roam freely in the trees as, the President was informed, this dramatically cuts down on “feather plucking and cannibalism” which is apparently rampant in battery operations.
Also pottering about the farm was Eamon Gilmore who has been up close and personal with the President throughout the trip. But a major foreign policy split emerged between the Labour pair, as, when the Tánaiste was asked if he would follow the president’s lead and don an England top for the Word Cup, he issued a defiant: “No!”
Horse power then took over as the presidential party sped to the Park House Stables in Newbury, Berkshire, where the Queen keeps some of her fillies, along with other owners, such as Alex Ferguson.
The stables, owned by the brother of racing broadcaster Clare Balding, have produced a number of Derby winners and the president enjoyed a tour of the silks room and the training gallops.
Mr Higgins gave the owners a framed display of the President’s silks — top and a tasselled cap in St Patrick’s Blue — which will be worn by his two-year-old filly Aimhirgin Lass, which is currently being trained by John Oxx.
In the surroundings, it could not help but be noted that the diminutive Mr Higgins was a good height for a jockey. Indeed, he is almost exactly the same height as the Queen, so it must be refreshing for each of them to actually look a fellow head of state in the eyes, rather than craning their necks to look up at relative giants like Barack Obama and David Cameron.
Despite the equine flavour of the afternoon, the Queen did not accompany her house, or rather, castle guest, to the stables.
After the lavish spectacle of Tuesday’s welcome to Windsor Castle, it would seem the Queen’s role is mainly that of landlady as she waits-in for her foreign visitor to return from his hectic round of engagements around her realm — possible with a hot cocoa in her hands for him.
There was a reception at the castle with a Northern Ireland theme at which the Queen shook Martin McGuinness’s hand while sporting one of her most radiant smiles, but the party of the night was meant to be at the Royal Albert Hall where the President was cheered by 5,000 well-wishers.
Irish passport holder and X Factor host Dermot O’Leary compared the evening which saw Elvis Costello (real name: Declan McManus) topping the bill along with Imelda May in a celebration of Irish culture, music, and poetry.
But it was the extraordinary double act of Elizabeth and Martin headlining at Windsor that really turned heads as the British Queen and former IRA commander turned Northern deputy first minister, heaped praise on each other for their work in the peace process in an extraordinary meeting of royal and republican minds which stole the show and brought the curtain down on a startling week in Anglo-Irish relations.
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