A 21-gun salute for the king on visit to Áras

With the Chief Whip turned chief umbrella holder yesterday, the King of Norway laid a wreath of fresh leaves at the Garden of Remembrance yesterday.

The rain bucketed down, the Army No 1 Band played on and Tom Kitt held the umbrella above King Harald V's head for as solemnly long as it took the men in their navy and red livery to play Amhrán na bhFiann.

And as the umbrella clearly failed to keep the monarch dry and the TD for Dublin South got soaked, one garda watching through the railing from Parnell Square was heard to remark, "Who'd have their jobs?"

King Harald and Queen Sonja arrived in Dublin on Sunday for their first State visit. Their first engagement yesterday was at North Wall quay to meet the Norwegian royal yacht, the KS Norge.

The rain abated just long enough to allow King Harald to plant a tree in front of Áras an Uachtaráin later in the morning. The couple were welcomed with a 21-gun salute before a private meeting with President Mary McAleese.

Shortly after tea, the President, wearing a long grey coat with horizontal piping detail and purple suede shoes, showed the king to the spot in front of the Áras where he was to plant a three-year-old oak sapling. Two shovels of earth tossed in, he handed the spade back to head gardener Robert Norris with a smile.

Afterwards, Mr Norris said he had explained to the king that the oak would live for about 300 years.

Providing some gaiety to the overcast proceedings were the third-class boys from St Mary's national school in Lucan, who waved small Irish and Norwegian flags.

Their class teacher, Anne Manning, said she had applied two years ago for a visit to the Áras and only recently got the green light.

"It didn't come through last year but just at the beginning of this school year I got a call saying 'This is Áras an Uachtaráin' and asking would we like to come. It's wonderful to get a visit like this, to be here during a State visit."

She said her pupils had been learning about Norway for the past fortnight in preparation.

Ben O'Dwyer (8) said the "best bit was the 21- gun salute." His classmate Pádraig Scully (9) said he had been "very excited" about the visit to the President's house.

"I couldn't wait. We've been learning all about Norway and the fjords. I thought the king and queen were lovely, though I thought they would have dressed up a bit more for it."

Among the couple's engagements today will be a visit by Queen Sonja to Trinity College, while the king will open a conference at the Global Irish Institute, titled Functional Genomics: The New Route to Food Quality.