Charles shakes hands with former IRA gun runner as Ireland trip ends

The Prince of Wales has ended his visit to Ireland by shaking hands with a former IRA gun runner who said the trip was another step on the “peace and reconciliation” journey the British Government and Irish republicans are making.

Charles met Martin Ferris, a Sinn Fein MP in the Irish parliament, as his four-day visit to Northern Ireland and the Republic with the Duchess of Cornwall drew to a close.

At a garden party staged in Killarney in County Kerry, the two men warmly shook hands in the grounds of Killarney House and exchanged a few words.

“From a national perspective it’s another step on the peace and reconciliation journey that both Prince Charles and the British Government and the British royal family are involved with along with Republicans on this island.”

The 2011 visit by the Queen to Ireland was seen as a watershed moment in Anglo-Irish relations, ushering in closer ties between the two nations as they reconciled their difficult shared histories.

The Sinn Fein MP went on to highlight the historic visit by the British head of state and how she paid her respects at a monument in Dublin to those who gave their lives for Irish freedom.

Mr Ferris said: “I think the Queen when she visited a number of years back and visited the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin was a huge statement and also going to Croke Park, the home of Gaelic football, and meeting Martin McGuinness.”

Earlier Camilla had kicked off her shoes to feel the sand beneath her feet when she joined Charles on a beach to highlight the scourge of plastic pollution.

Charles told his wife “you’ll get sand in your shoes” when she later slipped them back on her stocking feet.

Before getting into a helicopter, which had brought the royals to the stunning south-west Irish coastline, she could be seen shaking the sand from her footwear.

The heir to his throne and his wife toured the mansion and met descendants of the lawyer and statesman whose beliefs have influenced successive world figures.

Rickard O’Connell, the campaigner’s great-great-great-grandson, said about the royal visit: “It means an awful lot. There have been periods when his legacy wasn’t as recognised or kept alive through different periods but I think more and more there’s a real recognition how relevant he is today.

“Things like anti-slavery, universal rights, talking about the suffrage movement celebrating their hundred years recently, he was one of the early proponents of a lot of those movements.

“The peaceful element was critically what he was about.”