Leo: ‘We’ll roll out the red carpet for the young royals’
IRELAND will ‘roll out the red carpet’ next week for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – better known as Harry and Meghan - the Taoiseach said yesterday.
Asked by the Irish Daily Mail what kind of a reception the royal couple will receive on their visit here next week, Leo Varadkar said they will get a great welcome.
But he added: ‘I think, with the United Kingdom leaving Europe, we are really going to need to focus a lot more on bilateral relationships.
‘Visits by the president to the UK or members of the royal family to Ireland help cement that very close relationship between Britain and Ireland.
‘So we will be rolling out the red carpet and I think they will be extremely welcome.’
He said the visit was all the more important in light of Brexit and the dawn of a new era of relations between our two countries.
‘I look forward to welcoming them’
And he said there will be more official visits by our own president to the UK in due course.
Mr Varadkar was speaking just days before the couple are due to arrive in Ireland on Tuesday and leave the following day.
Although Meghan has been here before, it will be the prince’s first official visit to the capital, following on from his grandmother’s first official visit in 2011.
Speaking to reporters at an event for the Fine Gael party faithful in Cork’s Clayton Silversprings Hotel, Mr Varadkar said: ‘I am really looking forward to Prince Harry and Meghan coming to Dublin.
‘It’s the first visit they will have made overseas since they got married... I look forward to welcoming them.’
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a jam-packed itinerary of ten engagements during their whirlwind trip.
The most challenging, for An Garda Siocahana, will be at locations that are open to the public – which includes a trip to Croke Park, a walkabout in Trinity College and a visit to the Famine Memorial on the banks of the Liffey. They are also expected to visit the Guinness Brewery.
Given that Mr Varadkar said he was looking forward to welcoming the couple himself, it looks likely there will be a function at which he will meet the royals.
This is the young couple’s first break abroad since their wedding, and Kensington Palace said they are travelling ‘at the request of Her Majesty’s Government’.
The couple are also expected to visit Áras an Uachtaráin for a ‘courtesy call’ to President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina.
Farmleigh House – the State guest house – or the British Ambassador’s residence at Glencairn House are two possible locations where they will stay.
Security plans are at an advanced stage and it is not known how many engagements or interactions the couple will have – if any – with the public.
The visit follows shortly after the trip to Cork and Kerry last month by Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.