The Queen-McGuinness handshake: what the body language revealed

When you shake hands with thousands of people every year you need to keep each handshake short and sweet, and that's exactly what the Queen was trying to do when she encountered Martin McGuinness , Northern Ireland's deputy first minister. McGuinness had a different agenda, because he recognised the full political potential of the occasion and tried to engage her in conversation. The Queen, however, simply smiled politely and nodded her head, giving no indication that she wished to engage him any further, and showing no signs that she actually understood what he'd said. What happened after their handshake was equally revealing. When the Queen moved on to shake hands with the next person, and the spotlight was no longer on McGuinness, he immediately clasped his hands respectfully in front on him – which, ironically, happens to be the same gesture that's so often adopted by the Queen. At the same time he also produced a little mouth-clamp. This is a defensive gesture which shows that, for him at least, this was no ordinary handshake.