Connolly had hoops to jump through in first NI visit as Irish president

Media management can only take you so far. Ask those who organised Irish President Catherine Connolly's trip to Northern Ireland this week.

On the one hand she went to Stormont Castle and finally got to meet the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) deputy first minister, who did not attend her inauguration because of other commitments. Tick.

She delivered a speech in Belfast which not even the most politically sensitive person, in a place where political sensitivity could be an Olympic sport, would take exception to. Tick.

And she went to Londonderry where she visited both the Museum of Free Derry and the headquarters of the Apprentice Boys. Double tick.

But her even-handed onslaught did not survive contact with the DUP MP for East Londonderry Gregory Campbell.

He watched a speech she delivered in the Guildhall which he later lambasted as being "imbalanced" and "one-sided."

And he gleefully told her when they briefly met.

The media were not allowed any questions during the visit but no-one was going to stop Campbell.

"I was more than disappointed that in her speech there were numerous references to Derry, but not a single reference to Londonderry," Campbell said.

"She talked about some hardships and problems, for example with Bloody Sunday, which I would expect her to do, but made no reference to the fact that, where she was making those comments, on the west bank of the Foyle, only 5% of the population is now unionist because they suffered hardship, intimidation, and murder as well.

"I think she got the message and she apologised for not making the proper references, and I hope we can build a relationship between her country and our country.

"Because we can't rewrite the past, I told her, but we have to build a better future for everybody - and she agreed with that."

During the meeting he was captured on camera telling her: "You're in our country - tonight I'm going to your country" - a reference to a debate in Dublin where he argued against a border poll.

Actually they seemed to get on quite well otherwise. There were smiles and a handshake.

You don't have to be a cynic to believe Campbell got what he came for.

The DUP even made it the subject of its weekly e-mail to members, headlined: "Never afraid to speak up and speak out."

In it, Campbell (replacing the usual message from party leader Gavin Robinson) compared Connolly's visit to that of the late Queen Elizabeth to Dublin in 2011, which he described as "an exemplar in reconciliation".

Others might describe Campbell's reaction as rude.

He would say he was standing up for his side.

What Connolly thought of it we may never know.

On the Richter scale of such interactions it will barely register next week.

But it was probably more memorable than any visit north by Connolly's predecessor Michael D Higgins.

For him, it was the visit he didn't make that lingers in the memory.

In 2021, he boycotted a church service to mark the centenary of Northern Ireland saying the title of the service made it "inappropriate" for him to attend.

Cue unionist outrage.

Even his predecessor Mary McAleese - a Belfast woman born and bred - had to apologise when she claimed children in Northern Ireland were taught to hate Catholics in same the way Nazis despised Jews.

Connolly's actions in Derry this week pale by comparison.

At least as many people will probably remember her ability to throw a basketball through a hoop while facing in the opposite direction which she did while visiting a cross-community scheme on Wednesday.

During her election campaign she demonstrated her soccer skills with a display of keepy-uppy too.

But that's Northern Ireland.

No matter how deft your footwork there's always someone who wants to put you through hoops.