IMAGINE if they had feiseanna ceoil in Monaco. That’s the kind of soiree 130 guests of Prince Albert were treated to in the magnificent ballroom of Farmleigh last night.
The prince and his fiancee Charlene Wittstock returned President Mary McAleese’s hospitality with a recital by student musicians and writers from the principality. There were Irish stew canapés and more harp playing than you’d find at a Kathleen Watkins tribute night. The craic was only quatre-vingt-dix.
It was the kind of night where a student pianist called Thibaut Trouche played Ballade by Irish composer/pianist Tom Cullivan while Cullivan sat listening in the audience. Trouche, like his colleagues from the Académie de Musique et de Théâtre Prince Rainier III, sang classically arranged ballads and played jigs, pulling out all the stops to entertain an audience that included Brian O’Driscoll and Amy Huberman.
The students gave us a multimedia presentation charting the history of Irish art from 1700 and read charming letters they had written to Wilde and Beckett for a literary competition. The only thing that could have made it any better was if guest Michael Flatley had got up and done a spot of Riverdancing with Albert.
Like all the best feiseanna, it went on that little bit too long. After the concert the guests retired to the plant-filled conservatory where they had those well-earned canapés, Kildare cheese and air-dried Irish beef, west coast crab, lobster and vanilla bisque, Kerry prawns and mini-burgers for those with simpler palates.
Each guest received a commemorative programme with a letter from Prince Albert about his first state visit to Ireland. “There is a very special and genuine bond between Ireland and Monaco and it is my greatest wish that this be further strengthened and developed,” he wrote. In an envelope we also got a selection of Monagasque stamps, including one featuring Princess Grace.
Among the guests last night were Michael Smurfit; Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin; Mary Davis of Special Olympics Ireland; John Delaney of the FAI; Noel Curran of RTÉ; and Ireland’s ambassador to France and Monaco John Paul Kavanagh and his wife, Rosemary. Earlier they mingled in the drawing room, where there was an exhibition of Princess Grace artefacts brought over from Monaco, many of which related to her visit almost exactly 50 years ago. They included gowns such as the green Givenchy sleeveless dress and matching fringed bolero that she wore on her visit in 1961. She wore the dress to the White House for lunch with JFK the same year. Two pairs of white leather gloves and a pink pill box hat were also on display, alongside gifts given to Princess Grace by relatives.
Martina Chambers Farrah, a family friend of the Rainiers, was among those admiring the exhibition. She was 18 and a student at the Sorbonne working on a project about Monaco when she met Princess Grace. “I think because I was from Mayo she invited me to spend two summers with the family at the palace in Monaco,” she said. “You can imagine it was daunting at first but they made me feel very much at home.” Asked what was her favourite memory of Princess Grace, she said “simplicity and sincerity – she was a wonderful person”.
Earlier in the day Prince Albert was in Trinity College Dublin, where he announced details of a fellowship between the college and the Princess Grace Irish library in Monaco. Ms Wittstock was at Newbridge Silver and, we heard, shopping.
They were reunited when the prince was honoured by Lord Mayor Gerry Breen at a civic reception at City Hall. Something that has surprised onlookers during this state visit is the prince’s public speaking style. It’s not quite King’s Speech territory but his delivery is often faltering and hesitant, the words delivered in a soft voice that’s often difficult to hear. “I want to wish all happiness and prosperity to Dubliners,” he said.
Between the jigs and the reels and the Irish stew canapés, we heard that message loud and clear.