Red bandana still flying defiantly

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

What was Peter FitzSimons doing yesterday, I wondered? Hiding under the doona? Licking so many wounds?

Surely yes, because the royal wedding between two people who aren’t on the face of it even that important — Harry isn’t heir, or even spare, but sixth in line for the throne, and his bride is famous mainly for being in a mildly popular American sitcom — was, to use a couple of Fitzisms, a complete bloody triumph!!!

Encore! Encore! Extra! Extra!

GOOALLLLL!

So surely Fitz — he of no sugar and much red bandana — would, as chairman also of the Australian Republican Movement, be all: “Okay, okay, okay, and BOY WAS I WRONG about the monarchy being out of fashion!”

But no!

“Quite seriously, hand on heart hope to die, not one bit! We’ve had a fabulous week,” FitzSimons told The Australian.

But how can that even be? Surely these nuptials — these perfect nuptials — have for better or worse driven a nail into the coffin of the Australian republican movement, until death do the radiant couple part?

On the contrary!

“It’s always a great week for us when there is focus on royalty because for every person that becomes obsessed by it, there has to be two who reel away,” FitzSimons explained.

Peter Fitzsimons. Picture: Peter Ristevski

“I have done more interviews than ever before, fielded more inquiries, and received more encouragement from punters than ever. Our membership has surged, and, we have banked two large chunks of donations, one of them huge.” (He wouldn’t say how many new members, or how huge was the cheque, citing board policy.)

But come on, how can that be? The wedding not only rated through the roof, plastic tiaras were stripped from the shelves of two-dollar shops nationwide.

Well sure, said Fitz, but maybe that was because the royals were like the “British Kardashians” (he was quoting somebody on Twitter, and happily, they no longer lop off your head for that kind of heresy).

“They are indeed endlessly fascinating for some, but that shouldn’t be confused with wanting them to be Australia’s heads of state,” said FitzSimons.

“The Harry-Meghan wedding is perfect for us, because it focuses the national mind again on how the whole notion of royalty is, in and of itself, so very un-Australian.

“In the land of the fair go, we actually say to our kids you can aspire to be anything you want, bar one thing. You can’t be Australian head of state …

“We want a new Australia, not reduced to finding our heads of state from one family of aristocrats, living in a palace in London.”

Which makes them sound completely antiquated, when in fact, the Ginger and Meg show was completely modern.

The bride was older than her man, and a divorcee. The mother of the bride wore a nose ring, and why not? The groom wore a ginger beard, and why not?

When Harry wed Meghan

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The guest preacher was African-American, and given to a little flourish, and well, over to Bishop Michael Curry to bring the argument home: “The power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we are all here,” Curry said. “Two young people fell in love, and we all showed up! But it’s more than that. I am talking about real power to change the world! If you don’t believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America’s antebellum South who knew a bit about how faith keeps the spirit alive, in good times, and in bad.”

And there sat Meghan’s mum, Doria Ragland, herself descended from slaves, wiping tears.

You want power? That was powerful. There is power in love, but also in faith, in tradition, in history, in symbols, and in the grand old institutions, given by the British, that have served us well.