New king arrives to rapturous crowds

In the trip lasting less than five hours, the new monarch got a rapturous reception both in Royal Hillsborough and in Belfast

His Majesty vowed to follow his mother’s example in bringing together those whom history had separated in Northern Ireland.

Inside Hillsborough Castle on Tuesday lunchtime, King Charles noted that the late Queen had extended a “hand to make possible the healing of long held hurts” — a subtle reference to her historic handshake with former IRA chief-of-staff Martin McGuinness in 2012.

The new King also pledged to “seek the welfare” of all Northern Ireland’s people and described how his family have felt their “sorrows” as he praised his mother’s relationship with Northern Ireland.

Charles, who in 2015 made a pilgrimage to the site of his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten’s murder in an IRA bombing, said the Queen had “never ceased to pray for the best of times for this place and its people”.

In his response to a message of condolence from the Stormont Assembly, the King said the late Queen was aware of her position in bringing together communities “whom history had separated”.

Later, the King shook hands with the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins following a memorial service for the late Queen at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast.

Responding to the message of condolence from Stormont Assembly speaker and former republican prisoner Alex Maskey, King Charles commented: “Through all those years, she never ceased to pray for the best of times for this place and for its people, whose stories she knew, whose sorrows our family had felt, and for whom she had a great affection and regard.

“My mother felt deeply, I know, the significance of the role she herself played in bringing together those whom history had separated, and in extending a hand to make possible the healing of long-held hurts.”

With his Queen Consort, Camilla, Prime Minister Liz Truss and various other significant figures from Northern Ireland watching, the King said about the late Queen: “Now, with that shining example before me, and with God’s help, I take up my new duties resolved to seek the welfare of all the inhabitants of Northern Ireland.”

A momentous step forward in Anglo-Irish relations came when the Queen shook hands with Martin McGuinness, the then-deputy first minister of Northern Ireland and an ex IRA commander.

The late monarch had lost a member of her family in the Troubles, her cousin Lord Mountbatten, who had a close relationship with Charles.

The 79-year-old Mountbatten was murdered on August 27 1979, when a bomb blew apart a boat at Mullaghmore in Co Sligo, on one of the most violent days in the history of the Troubles that saw 18 British troops die in an IRA ambush at Narrow Water Castle, outside Warrenpoint.

Three other people were killed in the Mullaghmore bombing — Lord Mountbatten’s young grandson Nicholas Knatchbull, Paul Maxwell, 15, from Enniskillen serving as crew and Baroness Brabourne who died of her injuries the next day, in her 80s.

At the time of Lord Mountbatten’s murder Martin McGuinness had been IRA chief-of-staff for a year and would have had to approve of the assassination going ahead as the leading figure in the terror group’s Army Council.

The Queen’s historic state visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011 – the first by a British monarch since the Republic’s independence – was another milestone moment in improving Anglo-Irish relations.

Her Majesty had visited significant Irish locations such as Dublin’s Croke Park – the site of the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre — and surprised and delighted the nation by speaking a few words of Gaelic at the start of her state dinner speech.

l Morning View, page 58