{"id":141332,"date":"2018-06-14T21:43:14","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T21:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/prince-charles-meets-sinn-fein-leaders-in-cork\/"},"modified":"2018-06-14T21:43:14","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T21:43:14","slug":"prince-charles-meets-sinn-fein-leaders-in-cork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/prince-charles-meets-sinn-fein-leaders-in-cork\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Charles meets Sinn F\u00e9in leaders in Cork"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"PrinceImage copyright Getty Images
Image caption The prince took time to flick through the Great Book of Ireland at University College Cork <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Prince of Wales has held a private meeting with the leadership of Sinn F\u00e9in on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in president Mary Lou McDonald and vice president Michelle O'Neill met with the prince in Cork.<\/p>\n

The prince and his wife Camilla are on a two-day visit to the Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n

Ms McDonald said she was "glad to avail of the opportunity to extend the hand of friendship to those in Ireland who identify as British".<\/p>\n

Skip Twitter post by @MaryLouMcDonald <\/p>\n

\n

F\u00e1ilte Prince Charles. Enjoyed our friendly and interesting conversation. The work of reconciliation continues @moneillsf @ClarenceHouse pic.twitter.com\/XpdoiYmDZM<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) June 14, 2018<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Report <\/p>\n

End of Twitter post by @MaryLouMcDonald<\/p>\n

She added: "Today's meeting was an opportunity to extend the hand of friendship, not just to Prince Charles or to the British Royal family - whose efforts to promote reconciliation I want to acknowledge - but to those on our island who identify as British, and who are British.<\/p>\n

"As I have stated previously, the Ireland I want to be part of building is a country where one can comfortably be Irish or British, both or neither.<\/p>\n

"All identities and traditions on our island must be respected."<\/p>\n

Prince Charles first met Sinn F\u00e9in's leaders in 2015, when he spoke with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the royal couple began their visit to Cork with a walkabout at the city's English Market and a civic reception at City Hall.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Cork fishmonger Pat O'Connell shared a joke with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Later, they had dinner with Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney.<\/p>\n

The visit to the Republic comes after the prince spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Northern Ireland, where he visited north Belfast, Coleraine and Omagh.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Reuters
Image caption Prince Charles looked inside a recreation of a potato famine-era mud hut at University College Cork <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall had a tour of the same market where the Queen received a warm welcome during her historic state visit to Ireland in 2011.<\/p>\n

Lord Mayor Councillor Tony Fitzgerald hosted a reception for the couple at Cork City Hall before the prince visited University College Cork, the National Maritime College and the Irish Naval Service base.<\/p>\n

The prince boarded the L\u00c9 William Butler Yeats ship as a symbol of the close maritime links between the UK and the Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n

He was briefed on about the Irish Naval Service's involvement in rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n

The L\u00c9 William Butler Yeats embarked on a three-month deployment in the Mediterranean last year during an intensive period of the European migrant crisis.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Charles McQuillan
Image caption Members of the Irish Naval Service met Prince Charles when he visited Cork Naval Base <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The crews of five Irish vessels have rescued over 14,000 people who were attempting to make the crossing to Europe from North Africa and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Mr Coveney said the royal couple's visit enforced the "normalisation of a confident and independent Ireland today with its closest neighbour".<\/p>\n

"Prince Charles has been to the island three times in the last three years - today he's seeing the best part of Ireland," he added.<\/p>\n

Image copyright PA
Image caption The prince gave a speech during a civil reception at Cork City Hall as part of his visit <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The couple will spend Friday in County Kerry.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the royal couple visited the Garden of Remembrance in Omagh, County Tyrone, on the second day of their visit to Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Prince Charles began his trip to Northern Ireland on Tuesday with a visit to Coleraine and north Belfast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Getty ImagesImage caption The prince took time to flick through the Great Book of Ireland at University College Cork The Prince of Wales has held a private meeting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}