Today's edition of comments and clarifcations in the Guardian highlights a fascinating malapropism by their feature writer (or possibly a sub editor). While covering the official state visit by Michael D to the UK, John Crace turns to the speech made by our Galwegian head of state.
It's clear that they didn't pay too much heed to President Higgins' speech from this paragraph where they detail how the Donegal crooner O'Donnell merited a mention, sandwiched in between the Magna Carta and revolutionary nationalist Constance Markievicz.
They have today corrected that mistake with the following clarification detailing the difference between the singer and the great liberator.
The parliamentary sketch on the first state visit of an Irish president to London (From Ireland to give a lesson in popularity, 9 April, page 4) said that Michael D Higgins had "name-checked the Magna Carta, Daniel O'Donnell [and] Constance Markiewicz, the first woman elected to parliament". It was not Daniel O'Donnell, the Irish singer and television presenter, he namechecked but Daniel O'Connell, the 19th-century Irish nationalist leader.
