Forget fairytales, we want a reality show and fantasy

Ireland has always sought monarchs; royalty is in our DNA. So don’t be surprised at the interest in the royal wedding

Prince Harry and his new bride Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, leave Windsor Castle following their wedding yesterday afternoon Picture: Getty

All British royal weddings resemble one another. But each happy royal wedding is happy in its own way – to torture Tolstoy’s great phrase about families.

And this one was very different. Not just because the ghost of the groom’s mother, the still-lamented Princess Diana, still lingered. Nor that the antics of the bride’s father made headline news on BBC, ahead even of tragedy in the Middle East. Nor that Shakespeare’s clarion call, ...