A fortnight after she was forced to cancel a visit to a Catholic school because of fears of a Sinn Fein picket, the Duchess of Abercorn yesterday arrived at the school.
Excited squeals and giggles could be heard from the main hall of St Mary's primary school in the nationalist Co Tyrone village of Pomeroy as the pupils awaited the duchess, whose visit was to promote a creative writing competition.
The black-lined curtains were drawn in the hall for the occasion, rescheduled after the local row was resolved by the intervention of the Sinn Fein Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness.
There were no protesters yesterday, and the only huffing and puffing about the duchess's presence came from the children who performed a play for her based on the tale of the three little pigs and a big bad wolf.
The duchess pulled up to the red-brick school, perched on a hill in the middle of the windswept village, at around 11 a.m. She was accompanied by a woman assistant. The school's principal, Mr Michael Harvey, greeted both women with a handshake and led them inside to where 50 pupils in classes five, six and seven awaited them.
The duchess was to have visited the school last month to promote the Pushkin Prizes, awarded annually to schools on both sides of the Border. It was founded by the duchess, a direct descendant of the Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin, to recognise literary efforts by young people, and its patrons include the poet Seamus Heaney.
But her trip to St Mary's, which entered the competition for the first time this year, was called off last month after objections from a local Sinn Fein councillor. Mr Finbar Conway issued a statement on the eve of the visit, saying he had been contacted by parents who objected to "British royalty" visiting their children's school.
The duchess is not a member of the British royal family, but is married to a member of the nobility, James Hamilton, the fifth Duke of Abercorn. They live at Baronscourt Castle, near Newtownstewart, Co Tyrone.
The row embarrassed Mr McGuinness, who has been keen to establish a reputation for respect for diversity in his new ministerial post. Following his intervention, the trip was rescheduled. Mr Conway yesterday issued a statement simply confirming the visit and noting that it could "proceed without controversy."
The duchess emerged from the school after her two-hour sojourn clutching a bunch of white tulips and enthusing about the "fantastic stories" the children had read to her.
She politely brushed aside queries about the row, saying: "That's a thing of the past. That's just something that, you know, was a misunderstanding or whatever. But this is what it's about, the stories, the children and their imaginations and their voices. This is what we're here to hear."
She said the children sang songs and performed "a wonderful three little pigs play which was wonderful, with a big wolf huffing and puffing."