A fantastic shot of the state banquet at Windsor Castle last night

We sure hope whoever was seated at the top of the table didn’t need somebody to pass them the salt.

In what by all accounts was a tremendous occasion, Michael D Higgins was the guest of honour at a state banquet in Windsor Castle last night that was attended by Queen Elizabeth, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Prime Minister David Cameron and Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness amongst others. There were, in fact, 160 guests in total at the white-tie banquet – including Brian O’Driscoll and Seamus Coleman – and while, under normal circumstances, a party of that size would be divided up into numerous tables, all of them sat at one of the longest dining tables you’re ever likely to see, the sheer scale of which was captured in a fantastic shot posted on Twitter by the Irish Foreign Ministry last night.

Great shot of the State Banquet during the #IrishStateVisit. pic.twitter.com/tXpuBBzZCY — IrishForeignMinistry (@dfatirl) April 8, 2014

  President Michael D Higgins and Queen Elizabeth made speeches at the banquet, with both of them acknowledging the growth in the friendship between Ireland and the UK at the end of what was the first of four days the President will spend across the pond. Good to see everything went off without a hitch then, because as Frank Drebin knows, this kind of thing doesn’t always go to plan… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN9naTimz_M