Hasta la Ulster, baby: Arnold Schwarzenegger remembers his 1966 'Belfast breakthrough' as he's awarded an honorary doctorate by the Ulster University

The actor and former governor was today presented with an honorary degree by the University of Ulster, joined by an army of adoring student fans and Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly.

The 78-year-old proved to be in fine form, reinforcing the importance of focus and having a concrete goal to kids at the beginning of their journey through life.

Though he admitted the years have taken a toll, even on the Austrian Oak. He joked: “Forty years ago I said ‘I’ll be back’; now, I say ‘ow, my back’.”

Walking a red carpet into the university’s Belfast campus shortly after noon, he was greeted by cheering students bearing signs reading “Ulster he’s back” and “Hasta La Vista Ulster”.

He was also entertained with a performance of Strauss ‘The Blue Danube’ reworked for Irish traditional instruments by a troupe that included noted harpist Ursula Burns and a member of folk-rock band the Mary Wallopers, Finnian O’Connor.

That performance was followed by a muscular display of Irish traditional dancing to the theme from ‘Terminator’, the performers clad in the famed shades and black outfit look of Arnie’s cybernetic killer character.

Students lined the atrium in the university to listen to Schwarzenegger speak and cheered as he turned to hold up his award.

In his speech, Arnold revealed that his first visit to Belfast was for a 1966 bodybuilding show, which brought him into contact with his hero – British muscleman Reg Park, who had a long cinema career starring in Italian movies about Hercules – and saw him make an unexpected debut as a public speaker.

“I walked over to the microphone, thinking [Reg] wants me to do another most muscular shot, or something like that,” he said. “No, he asked me a question.

“He said, ‘how do you like it here?’ and I’m now almost fainting, because I’ve never, ever spoken in public before, and we don’t have to tell you the fear that we all have of public speaking.

“I had almost a heart attack. And I didn’t speak English.”

He added: “So then [Reg] said to me, tell them ‘I like Belfast’. So I said, ‘I like Belfast’ – standing ovation, everyone jumping up, you gave me great applause.

“Then he says, tell him that you’re going to be back and then I said, ‘I come back’; at that time I didn’t say I’ll be back, that was before Terminator, so I said, ‘I come back’.

“So anyway, standing ovation, he said ‘thank you very much, that was fantastic, the first time you spoke in public, you did such a great job and your English is great’ and all this stuff.

“And then afterwards I left, I said to myself, ‘oh my God, I thought I’m going to die when I speak in front of people, but this was the most encouraging audience’.

“So what I’m saying is what happened that day in Belfast was so important to me, because every single time afterwards, when I won a competition, I went to the microphone and said thank you very much for making me the winner, being Mr Universe, it’s great to be in London, or it’s great to be New York, or wherever it was and I thanked the audience, and said, ‘thank you fans for being so enthusiastic’.

“And I said a few words, and each time I said, more and more and more, they eventually couldn’t shut me up.

“I love talking so much in public, so this is what I’m talking about, this was a breakthrough.

“I always tell people about that breakthrough that happened here in Belfast. This is why I have such fond memories of Belfast, and this is why it is so great to be back now.”

Present in the auditorium was a mainstay of Northern Irish bodybuilding, Eric Dowey. Nearly 90 and still training, he remembers Arnie’s first appearance in Belfast.

“This big Austrian fellow came on stage, 19 years old; the crowd couldn’t believe it,” he told the News Letter. “Irish bodybuilders loved him. Nobody had heard of him before – they couldn’t even say his surname, they just called him ‘Arnold S’.

“Meeting him in the flesh again was a wonderful pleasure. I never thought it would happen after all these years.”