LAST UPDATE | 13 Sep 2022
THE BRITISH KING, Charles III, and his queen consort have left Northern Ireland following a memorial service for Queen Elizabeth II earlier this afternoon.
Charles and Camilla left Edinburgh for Northern Ireland this morning after the new monarch and his siblings staged a vigil around their mother’s coffin on Monday evening at St Giles’ Cathedral.
President Michael D Higgins and Sabina Higgins, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence Simon Coveney will attend a service for the king at Hillsborough Castle this afternoon.
The couple’s jet touched down at George Best Belfast City Airport, where the new Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris was waiting to greet the King and his wife, who are touring the four home nations.
Royal visits usually prompt gifts and, despite the solemnity of the occasion, schoolboy Lucas Watt, 10, from the local cross-community Forge Integrated primary school, presented the King with a tin featuring an image of the Giant’s Causeway.
The king looked pleased and tapped the present from Art on a Tin, a business set up by couple Bill and Caroline Skillen to promote local artists, and filled with truffles made by the Chocolate Manor from the Northern Ireland seaside village of Castlerock.
Camilla received a posy of flowers, from schoolgirl Ella Smith, 10, with the blooms taken from Hillsborough Castle.
After touching down in Belfast, Charles and Camilla travelled to Hillsborough Castle in Co Down, the royal residence in Northern Ireland, for several engagements.
The couple went on a walkabout when they first arrived at the castle, shaking hands with some of the hundreds of flag-waving people who had waited hours to catch a glimpse of the new king.
The king and his wife received a 21-gun salute as they entered the grounds.
Shouts of “God save the king” were heard and at one moment and a corgi in the crowd snuggled up to Charles when its owner held it up during the walkabout by the royal couple.
There were many school children behind the barriers and one group handed over letters they had written to the king.
A round of applause broke out as they inspected floral tributes to the late queen before entering the grounds of the castle.
‘Seek the welfare’ of Northern Ireland
Speaking at Hillsborough Castle, King Charles III pledged to “seek the welfare” of all Northern Ireland’s people and described how his family have felt their “sorrows” as he praised his mother’s relationship with Northern Ireland.
Charles, who in 2015 made a pilgrimage to the site of his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten’s murder in an IRA bombing, said the queen had “never ceased to pray for the best of times for this place and its people”.
The new monarch said the late queen was aware of her position in bringing together divided communities “whom history had separated”.
The king, responding to a message of condolence on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland from Stormont Assembly speaker Alex Maskey, said: “Through all those years, she never ceased to pray for the best of times for this place and for its people, whose stories she knew, whose sorrows our family had felt, and for whom she had a great affection and regard.
“My mother felt deeply, I know, the significance of the role she herself played in bringing together those whom history had separated, and in extending a hand to make possible the healing of long-held hurts.”
With significant figures from Northern Ireland watching, the king said about the late queen: “Now, with that shining example before me, and with God’s help, I take up my new duties resolved to seek the welfare of all the inhabitants of Northern Ireland.”
His Majesty The King has received the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and representatives from political parties at Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland. pic.twitter.com/rZKZ23gvKc
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) September 13, 2022
Charles and Camilla will then travel to St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast where they will attend a service of reflection for the life of the queen.
The new monarch will also meet leaders from all the major faiths in Northern Ireland.
Before leaving, Charles and Camilla will undertake a walkabout at Writers’ Square near St Anne’s Cathedral.
The royal pair last visited Northern Ireland in March of this year, when the then-prince met with people who had fled from the invasion of Ukraine.
Yesterday, Chris Heaton-Harris urged Stormont party leaders to form an executive “as soon as possible”.
He made the comments in his remarks to the House of Commons, saying:
“I know the House shares my view that Northern Ireland needs a stable, fully functioning devolved government to deliver on the issues that matter to people most.”
Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O’Neill and DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson are among those at Hillsborough Castle for the visit.
The DUP withdrew from the Executive earlier this year in protest over the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol, a special arrangement that keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods, avoiding a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.
Speaking this morning, Donaldson welcomed the attendance of all main political parties at Hillsborough Castle for the visit of the king and his wife.
“It is a recognition that the king has a role in reconciliation here. “e has demonstrated a very sharp insight into Northern Ireland and shown a great interest in the development of Hillsborough Castle,” Donaldson said.
“He is sensitive of political differences here and keen to build on reconciliation.”
He added: “There are lots of people here today, here to welcome their new head of state. “There is a lot of interest in the monarchy here in Northern Ireland.
- Contains reporting from Press Association.
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