President Connolly to meet King Charles during visit to Britain

London and Leeds visit will be President Connolly's first engagements in England since her inauguration last November

President Catherine Connolly with children taking part in the INTO's global citizenship schools programme at Áras an Uachtaráin earlier this month. President Connolly is visiting Britain this week. Picture: Tony Maxwell

President Catherine Connolly is due to meet King Charles as part of a three-day visit to Britain this week.

The visit to London and Leeds marks the first engagements by President Connolly in England following her inauguration last November.

As well as holding a meeting with the British king, the President will visit the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith this morning, where she will deliver an address and meet with those participating in an Irish language class at the centre.

She will also attend a reception at the Irish embassy in London tonight.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, she will attend the Chelsea Flower Show and the London Irish Centre in Camden.

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Queen Elizabeth II with then president Michael D Higgins at Windsor Castle on April 8, 2014, during the first official visit by the head of state of Ireland to the UK. Picture: Justin Tallis/WPA/Getty

The President’s visit will conclude on Wednesday with engagements at Leeds University and the Leeds Irish Centre.

In Leeds, President Connolly will be briefed on the work of the Irish Health Centre there and will also meet with many representatives of other Irish Centres in the region.

It had previously been reported that there had been some Government and civil service unease around the fact that the President chose to travel to Spain last month for her first official overseas event, with some officials of the view that meeting her British counterpart would have been a more appropriate first trip.

President Connolly with senior members of the Defence Forces at the Arbour Hill commemoration earlier this month. President Connolly is visiting Britain this week. Picture: Tony Maxwell

She addressed the In Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona at the invitation of the prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, and the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

President Connolly’s predecessor Michael D Higgins made the first State visit of a president of Ireland to Britain in 2014.

Then president Mary McAleese with Queen Elizabeth II in Dublin on May 19, 2011, during the first visit by a British monarch to Ireland since independence. Picture: Oli Scarff/Getty

During the four-day visit, Mr Higgins made a historic address to the House of Commons in which he hailed the transformation of the relationship between Ireland and Britain from what had once been one of mistrust to one of mutual respect and friendship.

It came three years after Queen Elizabeth II made her own historic trip to Ireland, the first as a reigning British monarch since the foundation of the State, with her husband, Prince Philip, during the presidential term of Mary McAleese.

• Elaine Loughlin, Political Editor