Prince Charles and Camilla have finished their Irish tour and have now left Tipperary.
Having spent yesterday in Waterford it was Tipperary’s turn today.
Cahir was first on the itinerary this morning as the Royal couple visited the castle and spoke with local food producers and school children.
Tipp FM were in Cahir and Cashel for the visit.
In Cahir, they visited the farmer’s market and met with members of the Tipperary Food Producers network.
The network has 34 members and they displayed produce from all producers, while nine were chosen to meet Prince Charles and Camilla in Cahir.
They also went to Cahir Castle and met with members of the local Comhaltas group – Prince Charles even picked up a bodhrán.
Speaking during the visit, Cathaoirleach of Tipperary County Council, Councillor Marie Murphy says she hopes that Tipperary will benefit from this visit for some time.
“Hopefully, there’ll be a knock on effect like there was from when the Queen visited in 2011, in terms of tourism and business.
“Cahir is open for business, so is Cashel – there’s plenty to do in the area between Cahir Castle, Swiss Cottage, fabulous Inch Field and it’s just a fantastic location.
“We need to just get it out there and tell people all about the fabulous town that is Cahir.”
In Cashel, the couple visited the Rock of Cashel and Brú Ború heritage centre.
They left the Brú Boru to a flurry of Irish music and applause following parting words of sympathy to the family of Ashling Murphy who were requested by the couple to join today in Cashel and have a private meeting. The meeting lasted 15 minutes, and they are said to have expressed their sympathy to the family.
To look back on the day, the future King and Queen of Britain arrived in Cahir at 11 this morning to cheers from local school children and were shown around the farmer’s market.
Some of the producers included Cashel Farmhouse Cheese, Inch House pudding, The Clonmel Bakery where the Prince proceeded to by some of the local soda bread, and the My Granola and Nut Shed producers.
After sampling crisps, bread, and cheesecake they were shown around Cahir Castle and met some of the local representatives and TDs, as well as local woman Nora Quirke who was celebrating her 97th Birthday and said it was ‘a big day’ for her as she never thought she’d ‘meet a Prince.’
Local TD Mattie McGrath said that HRH was very taken with what the producers had to offer and hoped this would be the much-needed boost for the community after a challenging two years.
Also, there to greet them was the men’s shed, first responders, tidy towns, and representatives of the castle.
One of the standout moments was when Prince Charles picked up a bodhrán and proceeded to join in with the musicians. The Cahir Comhaltas group had brought along two extra just in case he wanted to give it a go, and apparently, he was quite good.
Then it was on to Cashel where Irish/Welsh style trumpets welcomed the couple, while they went inside the Cathedral.
Her Royal Highness met local author Martin Quinn and was presented with a copy of his book ‘Tipperary People of Great Note’.
After a performance of traditional music, dancing and singing, Prince Charles gave a speech during which he expressed his love for Ireland, the traditions here, the need to strengthen our connections, and finally he spoke about the need to end gender based violence against women, something he said Camilla had called for back in Britain.
While their visit to Tipperary is over for this year, by all accounts the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall hope to return and see more of the counties in Ireland, and with the knowledge they’ll get from their new book on Tipp people , we shouldn’t be surprised if they choose to return to the Premier again.
