Royal Danes to do Temple Baroque

When it comes to detailed descriptions, you have to hand it to the Danes

When it comes to detailed descriptions, you have to hand it to the Danes. In a glossy brochure published at the time of Prince Joachim's marriage to Princess Alexandra, readers were informed that he has a baroque sense of humour and that she stands exactly 162cm tall.

Royal-watchers can scrutinise both for themselves when the couple arrive in Ireland today for the official opening of "Out of Denmark", a major cultural programme which will take place in Dublin over the next six months.

Theirs has been a fairytale romance. Four years ago dashing Prince Joachim (29) met glamorous Princess Alexandra (34) in Hong Kong where "this little dark-haired beauty" - that brochure again - promptly won his heart.

Danes went into Alexandra frenzy when their engagement was announced in May 1994.

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One editorial in a national daily newspaper trumpeted that it was the first time in the history of European monarchies someone with Oriental blood was going to be in order of succession to the throne.

The petite, fabulously good-looking, charming and bright businesswoman has since achieved veritable Diana status in Denmark.

Aides were at pains to impress on Irish journalists invited to Denmark recently that the Danish royal family is not like other blue-blooded dynasties. Prince Joachim describes himself as a farmer first, and a prince second.

They don't stand on ceremony and the prince has even been known to stick his hand in his pockets when posing for photographs. His mother and father, Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik, are similarly laid-back.

The queen's grandfather, King Christian X, stayed defiantly put in Copenhagen throughout the German occupation and the royal bond with the Danish plebs has been unbreakable ever since.

While in Dublin, Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra will attend a dizzying array of exhibitions and concerts in the name of strengthening the already existing links (the Vikings, remember?) between Denmark and this island.

Tomorrow they will attend a Lutheran service in Ballsbridge. The couple will also sample Guinness in Johnny Fox's pub in the Dublin mountains and do a walkabout in Temple Bar.

No doubt Prince Joachim's baroque sense of humour will come in handy when he and the wife are negotiating the post stag-party debris in Dublin's, ahem, cultural quarter.