Officially, British royal marriages are of no concern to the people of this Republic, though naturally, these days, neighbourly goodwill is expressed on our behalf, writes Martin Mansergh.
The television ratings tell a somewhat different story. Many people in Ireland, Europe and the US have a fascination, not only with celebrities but with old-fashioned pageantry, which the British do better than practically anyone else.
It would be wrong to misconstrue this as latent royalist sentiment.
In the mid-1980s, the day a full-scale royal wedding was taking place, the leader of the Republican Party, noting with disapproval that the work rate on the fifth floor of Leinster House had slackened off considerably, decided to go home early. Legend has it that his unexpected early homecoming led to family and staff hurriedly switching off the televisions!
As Taoiseach, Charles Haughey had plenty in common to discuss with Princess Anne, patron of the British Equestrian Federation when she was over for horse trials. Last year in Lismore there was a warm reception for Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, as they stayed in the Devonshires' castle over the Blackwater with its high towers and splendid gardens. The response was more reticent in the Seanad last week, when Senator David Norris tried to arouse cross-party enthusiasm for the regularising of a royal relationship.
Some commentators exaggerate Government impatience for a visit by Queen Elizabeth II, as if the peace process somehow required that final affirmation. There are a lot more upfront affirmations and actions needed right now. Such a visit, the first since independence, would be a historic occasion. The type of response in 1995 made by the taoiseach, John Bruton, to the visit of Prince Charles, citing it as the most important event in his political life, is unlikely to find imitators, when eventually the British head of state is our guest.
The murderous attack on Lord Mountbatten and his party was in breach of the laws of hospitality, not to mention ignorance of his role in presiding over British withdrawal from India. As futile as other deaths in the Troubles, it cast a long shadow and will not be forgotten, but it has been and has to be gradually transcended on all sides.
Royal marriages and births played an often fateful role in our history. Henry VIII's marital difficulties led to the Reformation, which was initially very weak in Ireland, apart from the dissolution of the monasteries.
His eldest daughter, Queen Mary, who succeeded the Protestant boy King Edward VI, married King Philip of Spain, and laws were issued in their joint names. Philipstown (Daingean) and Maryborough (Portlaoise) were part of their legacy to Ireland.
Ireland bore the brunt of the Elizabethan wars. Elizabeth, regarded as illegitimate by Catholic Europe, never married, as she did not wish to be overpowered by a man, which happened to Mary II, reigning jointly with William III, Prince of Orange.
The catalyst in the fall of his father-in-law, James II, was the birth of the Prince of Wales, with its vista of unending Catholic succession. Furious and spurious charges of illegitimacy were made.
In the 18th century, with complicated successions, the Act of Settlement of 1701 required all future sovereigns to be in communion with the Church of England (of which they are head), disqualifying those who married "a Papist".
The Statute was described by Winston Churchill in his life of Marlborough as "a virtual reproach upon the reign of King William". The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 requires royal consent to a marriage, after brothers of George III married respectively an illegitimate and a commoner widow.
Lord Dubs, former Labour Northern Ireland minister, and member of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body, introduced a private member's bill earlier this year to remove gender bias from the succession (which gives any son precedence over a sister), and the ban on marrying a Roman Catholic.
While constitutional reform, which gave devolution to Scotland, Wales and (though in suspense) Northern Ireland, is one of the finest legacies of Tony Blair's government, there is little appetite for reform to abolish the last of the penal laws, or to interfere with the established church and the Anglican monarchy.
It is amazing that those who today make accusations against this State have nothing to say about this aspect of the UK's constitutional arrangements.
Indeed, the Orange Order is pledged to uphold them. Its notion of civil and religious liberty is nearly as incomplete as the Sinn Féin understanding of criminality.
Queen Victoria had her own solution to the problems of a male spouse by giving Prince Albert the title of Prince Consort and not King, a limitation on his role that he could never understand.
His statue, because of his role as a scientific patron when Leinster House was headquarters of the RDS, survives in the bushes of the car-park, whereas the larger statue of Victoria herself, after decades in a depot, was transported to Australia in 1988 to Melbourne, capital of Victoria. The spouse of the future Edward VII gave her name to Alexandra College.
The future role and status of the British royal family is not a matter for us. The last time it had an impact was in 1936 at the time of Edward VIII's abdication, because of his love for Wallis Simpson.
Ireland as a member of the Commonwealth and nominal dominion at that time was involved, and de Valera used it skilfully to push through the External Relations Act, which reduced the role of the crown to a vestigial one in relation to diplomatic accreditation.
It allowed Ireland to become a Republic with a President, a Constitution that works well and reflects the ethos of our society.