AMONG the hundreds of statesmen, diplomats and civil servants who filed past the coffin of King Hussein in Amman last Monday there were only four women, and one of them was our own President, Mrs McAleese, who was accompanied by her husband Martin and the Minister for the Marine, Michael Woods. Another was Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. World leaders' wives who came to Jordan to offer their condolences - such as Hillary Clinton and Spain's Queen Sophia, did not partake in any of the ceremonies, in keeping with the Arab custom of all-male funerals. Instead they went to the palace to sympathise with Queen Noor and the female members of the late king's family. The ban on women did not extend to heads of state.
Mrs McAleese did not, however, attend the burial, in deference to tradition, but went instead to meet the queen. Once the funeral arrangements emerged last Sunday the various nations immediately booked hotels for their delegations, but as the crowds increased the Jordanian authorities cancelled them all and re-allocated the rooms. During her overnight stay at the Meridian Hotel the President literally ran into many statesmen she had never encountered before. As protocol was impossible with so many dignitaries, the great ones wandered around unguided as they waited for cars and luggage and lifts. Other Meridian guests included King Juan Carlos of Spain, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, the Crown Prince of Japan, the Sultan of Brunei, President Assad of Syria, the President of Austria and the Prime Minister of Singapore.
Mrs McAleese had conversation with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, whom she has met already, but also with Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign minister of Poland, who approached her by saying he was currently reading her book, Reconciled Being.
The scale of the occasion was evident when the Jordanian authorities shut down Amman airport to all commercial flights and reserved it strictly for private planes. Since the Government jet, the Gulfstream, was in Australia with the Tanaiste Mary Harney and the four-seater Beachcraft is unsuitable for journeys longer than the Brussels run, a special small plane was hired from England for the eight-strong McAleese party. It was parked on the Tarmac beside the giant Air Force One, which brought home to the Irish how small a player Ireland really is.