HM’s rep to Prez: “…do whatever you like, they all do anyway, she’s a professional, it won’t bother her…”

H/T to Jude for pointing me at a little gem for the weekend. He starts by quoting from Mary McAleese’s address to the the Royal Edinburgh Society, and he highlights this little gem:

“I don’t do that. I don’t kiss bishops’ rings, I don’t curtsey to popes and I don’t curtsey to monarchs. It is part and parcel of the make-up, the strong egalitarian sense that runs through me”.

“Neither do an awful lot of us, Mary”, says Jude. But then he misses a wee cracker of a punchline:

She said she went to see the master of the queen’s household, saying that “if this causes embarrassment we should get somebody else to do it”.

“He said, “Ah, curtsey, don’t curtsey, it has gone out of fashion, do whatever you like, they all do anyway, she’s a professional, it won’t bother her. Do whatever you like.”

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