This is a country for old men, but the Presidency may require youth

ON the first day of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s visit to Ireland they had lunch at Áras an Uachtarain, invited by President Mary McAleese as part of a small group that included Michael Ó Muircheartaigh, the GAA commentator.

What might Ó Muircheartaigh have had in common with the Queen that he was one of the first guests to meet the British delegation?

The Queen, 85, and her husband, 90, probably enjoyed company of an age close to theirs. But, as O’Muircheartaigh told me soon afterwards, he had interviewed one of the Queen’s sons, Prince Edward, years earlier at a greyhound track in London. O’Muircheartaigh gets around, beyond GAA grounds, and is a great man for telling a yarn, making him good company and a good host.