Prince William visited Belfast today for a series of engagements focusing on homelessness and the region's creative industries.
The Prince of Wales was due to visit in May this year, but the trip was postponed because of the calling of the UK general election. William’s first visit was to a project in Belfast aimed at helping to prevent homelessness for young people leaving care.
He was welcomed to The Foyer, a temporary accommodation and support service for young people experiencing homelessness operated by the Simon Community. On arrival William was greeted by the Lord Lieutenant for Belfast Dame Fionnuala Jay-O’Boyle.
Read more: Prince William visits Northern Ireland
South Belfast and Mid Down MP and SDLP leader Claire Hanna also welcomed the prince with Jim Dennison, the chief executive of the Simon Community, and Neil McKittrick, the Northern Ireland lead for William’s Homewards initiative.
The Simon Community is a member of the Northern Ireland element of the prince’s initiative to tackle homelessness. The Homewards Northern Ireland Coalition has identified the prevention of homelessness for young people leaving care as one of its initial priorities.
Prince William also visited the Ulster University Belfast campus, where he greeted students and visited the university's Studio Ulster virtual production training suite. While here, he took a rare turn behind the camera as he was shown around the state-of-the-art facility, practising moving a video camera along rails while talking to the students.
But he couldn’t resist climbing astride the motorbike as part of the in-camera visual effects stage himself, commenting: “I need to sit on the motorbike”, and continued to chat to the students while flexing his fingers around the handlebars against a backdrop of an arid scene in Arizona.
He nodded appreciatively as he heard that Ulster University was the first university in the UK or Ireland to bring this technology into the classroom.
Still entranced by the motorcycle, he commented: “I feel I should take this for a spin, does it come off the gimble at all, feels like you could have quite a lot of fun with that. Brilliant bike, love the exhaust.”
William went on to tour the rest of the city centre campus to which he had been welcomed by Secretary of State Hilary Benn, deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and Belfast Lord Mayor Micky Murray.
Take a look through our photo gallery below for some highlights from Prince William's trip to Northern Ireland.
English (United States) ·