A recent opinion poll has shown that public opinion towards the rapidly approaching state visit by Queen Elizabeth and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh has shifted wildly over the last number of weeks.

The Irish Times poll, which had been tracking public opinion on a number of issues, including the royal visit reported a surprising turn of opinion over the last fortnight. "Well, for much of the course of the poll, attitudes towards the royal visit could best be described as...apathetic." explained Michael Webb, public opinion researcher for the polling company who conducted the survey.

"Basically," he continued, "the Irish people as a whole didn't give one solitary fuck about the royal family."

Researchers then noticed a surprising rise of enthusiasm for the visit a few weeks ago, which they have largely attributed to the fanfare surround the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton. One respondent, Dave, a 32 year old unemployed electrician from Balbriggan, is reported to have described the occasion to pollsters as "only fecking magical".

However, this wave of popular support declined rapidly, plummeting to an all time low when it was reported last week that the newly married couple would be making their first state visit to Canada. "Well it's a fucking sham isn't it?" Dave told reporters when contacted for his views on the news. "I mean, what the fuck. Why are we stuck with the shit royal couple, while those stupid Canadian bastards get the good one? After all the shit they put us through, 800 years, the Famine, for Christ's sake! The least we deserve is a touch of the glorious, magical, glamour that a newly wed royal couple would bring to this dismal shithole of country."

Ryan Kenny