FOR once, Northerners and Southerners agreed. Prince Charles was just swell. Young people from both sides of the Border met him at Mountcollyer Youth Club in loyalist north Belfast yesterday.
Five teenagers from Cork Youth Development Centre had come up for the day. They first met their counterparts from the North when making a National Youth Council of Ireland presentation for the President, Mrs Robinson, in Dublin Castle last month.
They accepted an invitation to visit Belfast but didn't know about the royal guest. "We didn't know who we were going to meet today when we arrived from Cork" said Paula O'Sullivan (16).
"But it turned out to be Prince Charles. I didn't recognise him. I thought he would be young but he looked very old. I didn't expect him to talk to me because he was a royal but he was very friendly, nice and down to earth."
Lisa Yokes (17) from Mountcollyer was also impressed with the prince. "I thought he would be really stuck up but he is dead on. He has a good sense of humour. He is like a normal man, not like the richest man in the world." The teenagers performed excerpts from the musical Cats for the prince. Youth Initiative, from Poleglass and Twinbrook in west Belfast, then sung a Lionel Ritchie song.
Outside the youth centre, the prince met Ms Hannah Caldwell (84), who was dressed in a Union Jack hat and red white and blue coat. Hannah grabbed the royal visitor and kissed him. "I told him to get back with Di and he promised me that he would," she said, delighted at her attempts at marital reunion.
At Belfast City Hospital, where he opened the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service's £7 million headquarters, Mrs Gladys Hill rushed through the crowd to give the prince a hug. "Last time he came here I had to work. I was determined to see him today," she said. "Charlie kissed her," said another woman, pointing to Gladys, "but he told her it would do her no food for he was in love already."
The women of Newtownards, Co Down, were determined not to be outdone by theirs sisters in Belfast. Hundreds gathered outside the Industrial Therapy Organisation's new centre in the town, which the prince opened.
The prince then visited the nearby Scrabo Manor Improved Housing Scheme, where 36 sheltered apartments and bungalows have recently been built. He had a cup of tea with one resident, Ms Anne, Winnington. Another resident said there should be more royal visitors to Northern Ireland. "It's Diana we really want to see," she said, "but don't tell the prince."