From pomp to pigs on Presidential State visit

IT was a sudden switch from pomp to pig pen for the President yesterday.

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…”