The boyfriend of the Irish Taoiseach has been criticised after comparing the King’s Coronation to Harry Potter.
Matt Barrett, the partner and guest of the Irish premier Leo Varadkar, was accused of “embarrassing” his country with “highly insulting” social media posts made on his private Instagram account during the service.
In one, he posted a photograph of the newly-crowned King wearing the St Edward’s Crown and compared it to the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter books.
“Was genuinely half expecting it to shout ‘GRYFFINDOR’,” he wrote.
The existence of the photographs and jokes about the service, posted to his 350 followers on the day, came to light after the Irish Times reported on them.
A week after the historic event, Paul Costelloe, an Irish designer with links to the Royal family, condemned the social media posts as “highly insulting” and “very embarrassing” for the Irish.
The posts included a picture taken from the Taoiseach’s car while in the VIP motorcade to the Coronation ceremony, while on The Mall, over which he wrote: “Holy s---, I think I’m accidentally crowned King of England.”
While in Westminster Abbey, Dr Barrett also made posts that referenced the official Order of Service and joked about the wording.
One of the entries explained what happened between the Queen’s crowning and her enthronement, during which she would be presented with regalia.
He quoted the liturgy, saying: “The Queen’s sceptre and rod are brought from the altar by the Right Rev and Right Hon the Lord Chartres GCVO and the Right Rev Rose Hudson Wilkin CD MBE, Bishop of Dover. The Queen touches them in turn.”
Then he drew a green line around the latter sentence and added the comment: “Sounds like the script to a good night, tbh [to be honest].”
He also drew attention to the title of one of the participants in the list of the King and Queen’s procession entering the Abbey.
Dr Barrett highlighted the title of The Rt Revd James Newcome, who is known as “Clerk of the Closet,” in orange and quipped that he had “had this job until my early 20s”.
Mr Costelloe, who worked as a personal designer for Princess Diana from 1983 until her death in 1997, told the Sunday Independent that he thought Dr Barrett should publicly apologise.
He said: “They should have turned their phones off before they went in and Leo should have told him to put his phone away.”
The designer said Dr Barrett’s behaviour was an “unbelievable carry-on” and that “it will probably appear in the English papers”.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent, he said: “For people living over here, it puts you in a very embarrassing situation.
“I think it’s terribly hard to make excuses for that sort of behaviour. You can say it’s amusing and all, but you can’t do that type of thing.
“You have to be so careful over here. There is still this ‘Irish-English’ thing and they love finding something.”
The King’s Coronation last weekend marked the first time that an Irish leader was present at the crowning of a British monarch since Daniel O’Connell attended Queen Victoria’s in 1838.
Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein's First Minister Designate for Northern Ireland, was also invited to the ceremony.
She said before the event that she was attending because she is “committed to being a First Minister for all” with the intention to build “good relations between the people of these islands”.