Northern Ireland Office

In the final engagement of the day TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall have visited the Linen Hall Library in Belfast and met local members of The Prince’s Trust.

The Linen Hall Library was founded in 1788 and is one of the oldest surviving subscription libraries in the United Kingdom. Since the nineteenth century the Linen Hall Library has amassed extensive collections in all areas of knowledge and includes some of the oldest and rarest books in the world.

Their Royal Highnesses were greeted by The Lady Carswell OBE, Lord- Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast and went on to meet Ms Marney O’Neill OBE, President of the library’s Board of Governors, and Mr John Killen, Acting Librarian both of whom accompanied the Royal Couple during the afternoon.

Touring the library which was founded on 13 May 1788 as the Belfast Reading Society, TRH visited the Children’s Section and met young library users Niamh Ryan aged four, Charis Saunders aged eleven, Claire Arrell aged fourteen.

In the Irish and Reference section of the Library Their Royal Highnesses met library staff, users and members, and also met Neill Martin a local musician who performed music on the cello.

In the Governor’s Room Their Royal Highnesses met members of the Library’s Senior Management Team and had a special viewing of some of the gems in the Library’s collection including ‘Incunabulum – De Anima’ by Avicenna (1497) the oldest book in the collection and an original edition of the Belfast Newsletter from October 1738.

Before joining an event hosted by The Prince’s Trust, The Prince of Wales was presented with a gift of a book on the ‘History of The Linen Hall Library’ written by John Killen and was also invited to sign two copies of ‘The Old Man of Lochnagar’ one copy of which will be held in the Library and the other copy will be auctioned to help raise funds for the library. The Duchess of Cornwall accepted a gift of a piece of Irish Linen.

The Prince’s Trust reaches out to the hardest to reach young people to help them get their lives working again. It offers practical support targeted towards young people aged 14-30 who typically are unemployed, educational underachievers, ex- offenders or who are leaving care.

Accompanied by Dr David Dobbin CBE, Chairman of The Prince’s Trust Northern Ireland and Sir Nigel Hamilton KCB, Council Member of The Prince’s Trust TRH had the opportunity to meet around eighty young business exhibitors, their mentors and guests. All the exhibitors are currently involved a Business Programme which provides mentoring, grants and loans to young people working to start their own business.

Following words of thanks from Dr Dobbin, Ms Clair Galbraith and Mr Broderic Sloan, both young business exhibitors, presented TRH with gifts of a limited edition framed landscape photograph of Northern Ireland bringing to a close the final engagement of the day.

Notes to Editors

On arrival HRH were greeted The Lady Carswell OBE, Lord-Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast and went on to meet:

Councillor David Browne, Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast,

Councillor Francis McCoubrey, Sheriff for the County Borough of Belfast,

Mr Peter McNaney, Chief ExecutiveBelfastCity Council,

Ms Marney O’Neill OBE, President Board of Governors, Linen Hall Library

and

Mr John Killen, Acting Librarian, Linen Hall Library