Remember Boris Yeltsin's non-visit to Shannon in September, 1994? Many did on Tuesday. The sight of Bertie Ahern, Mary Harney, Brian Cowen, Liz O'Donnell, two ambassadors, senior civil servants, various spouses, Aer Rianta staff, protocol officers and such like lined up for more than half an hour along the red carpet at the foot of a big foreign plane reminded many of Boris's stopover.
Then taoiseach Albert Reynolds and his entire cabinet travelled from Dublin to greet the Russian leader and give him lunch, but they were stood up. Various functionaries ran in and out of the plane, but Boris never appeared. After much discussion and frowning and rumours among the public, who were watching the drama live on TV, that there had been a coup on board and poor Boris had a knife in his back, taoiseach and cabinet went off for lunch together. Reports later indicated the honoured non-guest was merely the worse for drink. From that point on, however, things went downhill for Albert and he lost power three months later.
Similar thoughts swept many minds as our current leaders waited on the windswept Tarmac at Dublin Airport. But Bill did come down the steps, eventually, and it soon became clear he had started as he meant to go on. Maybe it was the fault of over-ambitious scheduling, but the time lost on arrival - put down to him falling asleep just before touchdown - was never made up and he got later and later throughout his three-day visit to these islands. Waiting for Bill could have been the motto, but for thousands it was worth it.