The Duke of Edinburgh's latest visit to Ireland passed off without diplomatic incident, apart from his inability to pronounce the word Gaisce with a hard "c", writes Frank McNally
This was a minor faux pas for a man who has perpetrated more high-profile verbal gaffes than his wife has launched ships. At worst, it sounded like he was co-presenting something called the "Geisha awards".
Geishas only have to master things like music, poetry, flower-arranging and the tea ceremony. Qualification for An Gaisce and its British equivalent, the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, is much more wide-ranging. In the words of the duke himself, participants must prove themselves in four disciplines under the headings "compassion, fitness, skills, and enterprise".
The President and duke handed out 91 awards to recipients from the North and South, in an example of Irish-British entente cordiale. Describing the Duke of Edinburgh Awards as a "do-it-yourself growing up system", Prince Philip credited the idea to his old schoolmaster who, in 1954, told him: "My boy, I want you to organise an awards scheme."
The duke was taken for lunch in the Department of Foreign Affairs before paying a visit to the Taoiseach at Government Buildings. There, at a ceremonial handshake event, a cameraman found himself briefly on the wrong side of the security cordon.
Prince Philip, whose love of hunting is well known, joked: "Oh look, one's escaped!" But the photographer made it back to the right side of the cordon before the VIP visitor could bag him.