Princess Royal visits Maghaberry prison and SlurryKat

Anne toured newly built Davis House with senior officials from the Prison Service.

Director general Ronnie Armour said: “It’s a great privilege to welcome Her Royal Highness to Maghaberry and to have the opportunity to highlight how we are putting rehabilitation at the centre of everything we do and in particular how we support those who are vulnerable and have specific needs.

“It is fitting that Princess Anne visited Davis House which is the largest capital build undertaken by the Prison Service in over 30 years.

“This investment demonstrates our commitment to build a safer community by supporting and challenging the people in our care to change.”

Maghaberry is the only high-security prison in Northern Ireland and operates as a remand prison for all adult male prisoners in the Province.

It accommodates a range of sentenced prisoners like life sentence, indeterminate and extended custody prisoners, separated prisoners, fine defaulters and civil prisoners.

Davis House is a £54 million facility opened in October last year.

Princess Anne later visited the SlurryKat slurry equipment company in Waringstown.

The Princess was led on a tour of the production facility by CEO Garth Cairns, and was given a briefing about the components used for building tankers and shown 3D CAD models of the equipment.

The tour concluded in SlurryKat’s new state-of-the-art painting and final assembly facility, where the princess observed the painting process and final assembly of the products.

Mr Cairns said: “It was fantastic to be able to showcase some of the engineering expertise that Northern Ireland has to offer.”

SlurryKat staff and members of Mr Cairns’ family were introduced to the Royal visitor, who was invited to unveil a commemorative plaque and was presented with flowers and a miniature model SlurryKat tanker by Joshua Cairns, four, and Sofia Cairns, two.

Mr Cairns added: “It was an honour to host the HRH The Princess Royal at SlurryKat and share my journey of the past 13 years of the company with her.”

The Princess is expected to carry out two further engagements on Friday.