A MACROOM professor, who had the honour of meeting Queen Elizabeth II in 2011, said Cork certainly served up a feast of ‘fish and chips’ for her and Prince Philip during their brief visit to the city.
While it has been well documented that they visited the English market and saw many ‘fish’ on display at fishmonger Pat O’Connell’s shop, they also paid a visit to the nearby Tyndall National Institute where they got to see (micro) ‘chips’ up close and personal.
Prof Cian Ó Mathúna fondly recalls the anxious preparation and many rehearsals that they went through ahead of the royal visit.
However, even during rehearsals Cian found that he was breaking Royal protocol without even realising it.
‘There was ferocious preparation involved in advance of their visit and I had to prepare a speech as well as introduce two pieces of technology to the Queen. So for the rehearsals two weeks beforehand, I practiced in front of our communications manager, who pretended to be the Queen and when she came over I said ‘hello’ and put out my hand to shake hers,’ said Cian.
‘However, I was firmly told that I do not put my hand out unless she does and when we tried it again I started introducing the people who were next to me and I ended up breaking Royal protocol again as she told me that one never introduces people to the Queen!’
Needless to say, when Cian did meet the Queen, he had his two hands firmly behind his back for fear of breaking protocol.
‘The security to get into Tyndall on the day of their visit was very strict and I remember looking out a window from one of the upstairs labs and seeing snipers on the roof of nearby Presentation College, while every manhole in the area was welded shut.’
He said that he was delighted that the guest-list for her visit to Tyndall – which is a leading European research centre in integrated ICT (Information and Communication Technology) hardware and systems – included not only politicians and dignitaries, but also people from the local community.
‘That was a lovely touch and that came from her office which was interesting.’
On the day of the visit, Cian was standing alongside two other industry reps explaining the powers of smart technology to the royal couple, when Prince Philip asked if it could count mice!
‘I had only 60 seconds to explain my pieces of tech but everyone laughed and the Queen sort of showed her eyes to heaven. I also showed them micro needles and what was interesting is that she took it all in because when she met other people downstairs she recalled being told about them with me. I thought that it was pretty cool that she was listening to me and taking it all in even at her age. She didn’t ask me any questions, unlike her husband.’
As their visit was broadcast live on RTÉ, Cian said he was amazed with the amount of people recognising him as ‘the man on the telly who spoke to the Queen.’
‘I remember we all headed out afterwards that day in all our finery down to the nearby Raven bar and a guy was standing outside a bookies and commented ‘ye were good on the telly!’
‘For years we became known as the place where the Queen visited.’
