Britain’s Prince Charles will meet Sinn Féin leaders

The meeting comes on the first day of the heir to the British monarch's trip to Ireland – which will see him visit the scene of the bombing that killed Lord Mountbatten in 1979.

The Prince of Wales is also scheduled to meet the Taoiseach and President Higgins later.

Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall, begin their four-day visit to Ireland north and south here at the NUI Galway campus.

It’s been confirmed that the Prince of Wales will meet Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and the North’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in the city later this afternoon.

It comes after Mr Adams said there was a responsibility on all to promote healing .

Reconciliation does appear to be a major theme of the visit of the heir to the British throne – with a trip to Mullaghmore in Co Sligo scheduled for tomorrow.

It was there in 1979 that an IRA bomb blast killed his great-uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others on a fishing boat – in what was one of the most shocking incidents of the Troubles.

Security is tight in Galway ahead of the start of official engagements there at lunchtime.