I spent most of the day in and around Wilton way [E8] at a street party for the royal wedding. At first it did feel like a party to celebrate the occasion, families eating, drinking and playing in the street. People wearing mask of members of the royal family and a liberal sprinkle of union jacks as you would expect. As the day wore on the street got more and more packed and it decended into a massive session.
I found the whole experience of being in the London on the day really interesting. I am Irish and the son of an Englishman, so concepts of Englishness/Britishness do not seem as total alien to me, as they do to other Irish people. The Queen has been on the throne throughout my father’s life. She has been ever present throughout his development and life as an adult. So it is not surprising that a sense of connection exists. The Royal family has the potential to stir so much emotion here; their lives are exposed and played out in the media throughout. Even more so than 'normal' celebrities. The younger members of the family will most likely remain constants in my own life, regardless of how peripheral this existence will be it is none the less the most engaged relationship I will have with any public figure. Having said that I am by no means a royalist but I appreciated the sense of occasions and pomp the day brought with it.
