GALWAY, Ireland (AP) – Prince Charles has begun an official visit to Ireland by meeting the leader of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party for the first time, in another symbolic milestone of the peacemaking process.
Charles clasped right hands and chatted over tea with Gerry Adams amidst a crowd at the National University of Ireland in Galway.
The encounter took place Tuesday at the start of Charles’ four-day visit to the Republic of Ireland and the neighboring British territory of Northern Ireland. Adams, a reputed former Irish Republican Army chief, had never met a British royal before.
This is Charles’ third trip to the Irish Republic since the outlawed IRA called a cease-fire in 1994. On Wednesday he plans to visit Mullaghmore, where the IRA assassinated his great-uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979.