This week four of the same outfits the President, Mrs McAleese wore during the campaign were for sale in the window of Diffusion on Dublin's Clontarf Road. Above is shopowner Kate Gaffney, who has sold at least 10 suits to Mrs McAleese. Kate is a sister of Eileen Gleeson, the President's campaign press secretary, and on Tuesday Kate stood at her door while the then President-elect and Ms Gleeson in the car behind, slowed down and waved as they passed on the way to the castle.
Naturally the President's clothes have come under close scrutiny. There was some displeasure among the female guests at the very jolly, buzzy, post-inauguration party given by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin Castle on Tuesday night when, they having been told to dress down, ("informal" said the official invite), the new President turned up in a full-length evening gown and coat.
Although the two specially designed outfits for the day generally got the thumbs down, the President looked radiant both morning and evening. She progressed from room to crowded room at the party shaking hundreds of hands, walkie-talkie men ahead of her making a path through the crowds, then Army officers and aides, and behind, her husband Martin, the Taoiseach, Celia Larkin, and various ministers. It was a royal progress, rivalled only by the buzz around Charles Haughey, who held court in one corner of the room and extended his hand almost as often.