Anybody spot Westlife 'Star' Nicky Byrne's major
faux pas at the Paddy's Day Parade yesterday?
Nicky was sitting in the front row of the VIP grandstand outside the GPO on O'Connell Street and as the Presidential motorcade approached, everyone was asked by the MC to 'show respect and be upstanding for the guest of honour'. All 300 or so guests did stand up -
EXCEPT Nicky Bleedin Byrne and his wife Georgina who remained seated with their kids on their laps! Even when the President approached him to greet him (shouldn't that really be the other way around?

) he still remained seated and only managed to raise himself a couple of inches off his seat to 'allow' President McAleese to kiss him. To add insult to injury, he didn't even take off his sunglasses as she approached and the President almost knocked them off his face as she kissed him. How rude can one person be?!!
Do these so-called '
celebrities' think they are immune to the protocols of being in the presence our nation's President? Regardless of your opinion of Mary McAleese, do you not think this showed huge disrespect to the Office of the President? Is North County Dublin's answer to Posh 'n Becks completely ignorant or just plain thick? I imagine he didn't deliberately set out to snubb President McAleese, but do they really think they are 'above' having to stand up? Also, as a daughter of the former Taoiseach, you'd think that Georgina would be a little more savvy regarding the correct protocols surrounding these things. I don't accept the possible excuse either that they had the kids on their laps as lots of the people in the grandstand had small kids with them (Ray D'Arcy among them and he managed to stand up!).
If you missed it, the incident happened live on TV and the parade coverage is available on the
RTE Player - the Presidential arrival is around 6 mins into it iirc.