EVEN PRESIDENT Mary McAleese couldn’t avoid the controversy yesterday. There she was seated on a stage outside St Ronan’s Hall in the village of Keadue, Co Roscommon, waiting to open the 33rd O’Carolan Harp Festival, when her eyes fell on one of the parade floats.
“Norris, Me Aras. Mary Please Stay” screamed the side of an “O’Donnell’s Electrical” van, an entry which brought the house down and won a special prize for local businessman Colm O’Donnell jnr.
The President and her husband Senator Martin McAleese had been beaming enthusiastically at the vintage tractors, the children’s fancy dress participants and the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann float when they were confronted with the more topical message on Mr O’Donnell’s van.
The President adopted a mortified-at-the-compliment demeanour but she continued to applaud gamely.
Indeed, she seemed more taken aback by the participation in the parade of a group of Roscommon nurses carrying a slogan to the effect that minor accidents only were advisable, an obvious swipe at recent cuts at the county hospital.
The President though was on home ground – her holiday home is a 10-minute drive from the village – and she got the kind of reception in Keadue that candidates for high office must dream of.
As Paraic Noone, secretary of the festival committee, pointed out, “Mary”, as the locals called her, is no stranger to the O’Carolan festival. Indeed she turned up unannounced with her husband in St Ronan’s Hall in 2000 for the sean nós dancing class, much to the shock of tutor Pádraig Ó hOibicín and the rest of the students.
Yesterday, the President said “thank you” to Keadue for teaching her husband to “get both feet to move in the same direction and at roughly the same speed” on the dance floor. “Belfast men as a general rule do not dance. They march but they don’t dance,” she told the amused crowd.
If this is her final lap of honour, she couldn’t have asked for much more from the people of Keadue.
Mr Noone was drowned out with shouts of “hear hear” as he made the introductions, describing the President as “the once constant beacon and the moral anchor of the nation”.
The President didn’t forget to mention the Roscommon minors, who beat Armagh on Saturday – “well done the Rossies” – and was presented with a handcrafted candle in the county colours.