President’s speeches deliver right tone

IT WAS a historic week: Michael D went to meet the Queen; Martin Mac went to meet the Queen; Tommie Gorman went to meet the Queen.

The woman is pushing 88. She must have been completely exhausted by the end of it all, having to put up with the good, the formerly bad and the frowning countenance of Tommie.

In terms of the official visit, there was a sense of a postscript about it, rather than the main event. The hand of history, which came to rest lightly on Tony Blair’s shoulder in 1998, is limp now. Over the last 15 years, it has been grabbed and shook more often than a politician’s palm in an election campaign. Long before last week, we were sorted for making history.