Vocal Voices

I don't how much coverage the visit to Ireland by Prince Charles is getting across the water, but I have seen quite a bit of it today and I have to say that you should be very proud of him. He is conducting himself with great dignity, including shaking hands with the odious Gerry Adams. He has visited the place in Sligo where Lord Mountbatten left in his boat the day he was murdered, which must have been so difficult for him as he was so close to Lord Mountbatten, he said that he was the grandfather he never had. Camilla has been great too, I really like her. Prince Charles seems to have an awful cold!

I think so too. Times move on, and he's shown great dignity and forgiveness.

It must have been so hard for him.

Second item on the national BBC news tonight, Osc, after the £1.5bn Barclays exchange-rate fixing fine.

Coverage has generally been sympathetic in the media, with the exception of a horrible macabre cartoon in the left-wing Guardian newspaper yesterday over the Gerry Adams handshake, which I'm not even going to post a link to.

I think Prince Charles had a private meeting with Adams and Martin McGuiness yesterday, and I hope both sides were able to express their regrets to each other. There is a bit of an implication in the press over here that Adams's public handshake was more of a political stunt than anything else, and I see there's an Irish Times article on that score as well ...

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics ... -1.2218820

The delicate proposition that Sinn Féin representatives should participate in public events during the visit was floated at a party ardchomhairle meeting last Saturday.

My Gaelic is non-existant! What's an ardchomhairle meeting? Wine and cheese?

I'm sure I read in the d m last week some arms were found in the area
He's shown great courage and dignity
Not something I could do after losing family in such a way
But so did many familys

Ossie, an ard comhairle is the national executive of the party. Gerry Adams never does anything without an ulterior motive, I cannot stand the man and would not vote for him if he was the only candidate standing. I did read a report that Charles did not want to meet him, but the Queen insisted. Isn't it awful that he has to shake hands with a man like that and you could see that Adams was loving it - he badly needs some positive publicity at the moment.

I guess if they hadn't met it would've been twisted by Adams into 'I tried but Charles wouldn't do it'.
Dignified is the right word.