The Irish Examiner View: Staying mum on our Matt

No forelock tugging here!

There is a strong cultural aversion to forelock tugging in this country, especially if that forelock tugging is offered to any representative of our recent guests of 700 years.

It is seen as an act of capitulation, as a gesture of undue, undeserved abjection. In a society so long denied basic liberties it is entirely natural that anyone who expects such expressions of pecking-order deference might be more comfortable elsewhere.