Hillarysworld

KATHY SHERIDAN

THIRTEEN CARS and three buses wound their way to Farmleigh and another piece of history was made as the first US secretary of state to make a dedicated visit to Ireland emerged from an armoured 07 BMW.

She came dressed in a royal blue “pantsuit”, feminised with a ruffle, a large silver necklace and black kitten heels, none of which detracted from that formidable gaze as she and the Taoiseach swapped diplomatic phrases under a lowering sky.

It was a transformed Hillary, wrapped in a black coat and jolly yellow scarf, who stepped from a limousine on South Anne Street in Dublin city centre a few hours later as dusk was falling.

The Irish are not a slow people. The Garda presence on South Anne Street was a giveaway and the lads in Kehoe’s pub were ready and waiting with a big cheer. Suddenly, from the emptying streets, humans were emerging from all angles, beaming just-got-lucky grins and wielding their camera phones, as a totally relaxed Hillary smiled and chatted her way towards Bewley’s, the usual wary secret service crew keeping watch but giving room for an astonishingly intimate love-in.

“Got your Michael Jackson glove?” she asked merrily, showing the stuff that made her great by clocking – in the dusk – the single white glove on a small boy’s hand.

Two little red-haired girls, Laura and Emma Smithers from Knocklion, Co Cavan, presented her with flowers : “Oh my gosh is that for me? Can I take them with me?” she asked, wide-eyed.

The sole dissenter was an earnest young man in a black windcheater who asked when she would be getting the solders out of Afghanistan, Iraq and Shannon.

“We’re working on it,” she said, by which time a few well-practised shoulder movements from secret service men swiftly bundled him to the back.

Next stop Bewley’s, where a couple of small boys stood clicking their iPhones in her face as she waited for her cappuccino.

“You guys together?” she grinned, drawing them both in for a picture.

How was she maintaining the pace, asked The Irish Times ? Multi-vitamins and “a bit” of exercise. “I’m not up at 4.30am. No! But I exercise a bit and I like to walk . . . ”

On then to McDaid’s pub where the patrons were climbing on the counter for a better view.

“She’s a great ambassador for women,” said one. “Fabulous,” breathed her friend. “She’s just . . . just a lady,” said another, as George Hook ensnared her in a corner.

As she sipped a beer, someone asked was it Guinness.

“This glass has a harp on it,” she replied sharply, as in “that’s good enough for me”.

Back outside, a stunned Joanne and Bob Kalinowski from Scranton, Pennsylvania, stood almost in tears. “We live 14 miles from her, and this is our first time to see her.”

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times