Michael D Higgins made a serious faux pas at a gala dinner in London last night, when he raised a glass to the England team and expressed his hope that they "go all the way" at the World Cup this summer. Listen to the audio clip below.
Speaking at the Guildhall in the City of London, the President said: "As a follower of the beautiful game I look ahead two months to Brazil and say that if Ireland cannot be at the World Cup finals, then I will raise a glass to England to go all the way".
It's just as well that Michael D is only going for the single term in the Áras, because to distance himself from Ireland's national pastime - hoping England fail miserably after just enough expectation is built up - is a major risk in terms of preserving one's positive public image.
It was meant in good fun at a highly-choreographed diplomatic event, of course. He did concede that “there are some in the audience” who might “not be prepared to go quite that far”. No kidding.
Friendship between the nations is an honourable notion, and requires an unenviable amount of high-minded diplomatic arsetalk, but surely not when it comes to sending goodwill to one's footballing arch-enemies. Although you could possibly argue that Ireland's real footballing nemesis in recent decades has been Switzerland, or Spain when we were half decent.
The President, to his footballing credit, is no barstooler and regularly attends League of Ireland games. He is an ardent follower of Galway football and was president of Galway United before the club was wound up.
