Britain¿s Princess Royal, Princess Anne, spoke to patients at a nursing home in east Belfast today in the first of a series of visits in Northern Ireland.
She was introduced to Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble before meeting a group ex-servicemen and women at the Somme Nursing Home, a charity established in 1914.
Later the Princess Royal unveiled a memorial to Second World War veterans from the Northern Ireland at a yacht club in Cultra, Co Down.
The memorial recorded the names of 210 members of the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club who served during World War II, including 16 people who died.
She was met by the Lord Lieutenant of Co Down, William J Hall, the Ulster Unionist MP for North Down, Lady Sylvia Hermon, the Mayor of North Down, Councillor Alan Graham and senior club members.
Club members presented Princess Anne with a half-model of a Fairy One Design Class boat and a £1,000 cheque towards a pilot scheme for disabled sailing.
The Princess then to the Culloden Hotel on the outskirts of Belfast where she presented Save The Children awards.
Among the winners were Lisnagelvin Primary School and Belfast Royal Academy whose fundraising efforts for the charity was recognised.
She travelled to the Musgrave Park Hospital in south Belfast where she met staff in the x-ray department and fundraisers who have raised money for specialist medical equipment including a recent £350,000 MRI scanner.
The Princess also met 25-year-old Michael Muldoon from Cookstown, whose leg was amputated below the knee.
After visiting the wheelchair demonstration room, she was presented with a posy by 16-year-old Alastair Hall, a victim of the Omagh bomb in 1998 whose right leg was amputated below the knee and was fitted with an artificial limb.
The Lord Lieutenant Lady Carswell, the Ulster Unionist MP for South Belfast the Rev Martin Smyth and Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, Ms Henrietta Campbell were among those who welcomed her to the hospital.
The Princess will carry out a number of other engagements in Northern Ireland tomorrow.
PA