Charles and Camilla enter Republic for series of engagements

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited the Co Down market town of Dromore on Wednesday before crossing the Border for a series of engagements in Dublin, Kildare and Kilkenny.

Earlier on Wednesday the British royal couple paid what was described as a “semi-private” visit to the PSNI memorial garden at police headquarters in Knock in east Belfast.

They met a number of injured officers and relatives of police officers who lost their lives in the course of their duties. The Prince and Duchess of Cornwall also officially opened the memorial garden.

Those who died included constables Stephen Carroll and Ronan Kerr who were murdered in dissident republican attacks.

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Mark Lindsay, chairman of the police representative body, the Police Federation, said the visit was a “fitting tribute” to officers who lost their lives since the inception of the service in 2001.

“The memorial garden is a constant reminder to our wider community of the dangerous work officers do day and daily. It is right and proper that those who served and paid the ultimate price are remembered in this way,” he said.

In Dromore Prince Charles and Camilla did a short walkabout where they met local people and local traders.

The Duchess of Cornwall separately visited the new Dromore Central primary school which was opened just last year. The school has 700 pupils and 70 staff.

The duchess in her visit concentrated on her interest in promoting reading among children. Earlier this year she launched BBC Radio 2’s 500 words short story competition for children aged 5 to thirteen.

After the Dromore visit the royal couple began their journey to Dublin where on Wednesday afternoon after they will be greeted by the President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina at Aras an Uachtarain.

As part of their engagements between now and Friday they will travel to Kildare and Kilkenny and also visit Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin to commemorate those who lost their lives in the 1916 Easter Rising and the First World War. This is the couple’s third visit to the Republic in the past two years.

Buckingham Palace said the Glasnevin visit would “allow them to honour those men and women whose sacrifice in times of conflict shaped our two countries’ shared history; and to celebrate all that we do together to cement peace and secure a prosperous future”.