BELFAST |
BELFAST (Reuters) - Cheering crowds and armed police greeted Prince William as he flew into Northern Ireland on Tuesday to show off his bride-to-be Kate Middleton.
Amid extremely tight security the smiling, young couple arrived for a day-long series of engagements in Belfast, capital of the British-ruled province, and the surrounding area.
Attacks by nationalist splinter groups trying to end British control are at their highest level since a 1998 peace agreement largely ended three decades of conflict that cost more than 3,600 lives.
The area around their first port of call, Belfast City Hall, was sealed off by police and police marksmen kept watch from surrounding rooftops, while no advance public information had been released.
Workers in offices surrounding the City Hall pressed up against windows craning to get a glimpse of William and Kate, who was wearing a belted, mink-colored, double-breasted coat cut above the knee, with a frill at the base, black opaque tights and black high-heeled shoes. William wore a navy suit.
The trip is the latest public appearance by the prince and his fiancee since their engagement was announced last year, following a launch of a new lifeboat in Wales last month and a visit to the Scottish university where they began their romance.
The couple's visit to Northern Ireland comes days after it was announced Queen Elizabeth would make a historic visit to the Irish Republic, the first by a British monarch since the partition of Ireland in 1921.
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