Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton visits Belfast based charity
HRH Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton have visited YouthAction Northern Ireland at their headquarters in Belfast.
On arrival, HRH and Miss Middleton were greeted by Dame Mary Peters DBE, Lord-Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast.
YouthAction Northern Ireland is a regional voluntary youth organisation providing volunteering opportunities, performing arts, apprenticeships, mentoring, accredited training and leadership opportunities to young people living in areas of social and economic disadvantage.
HRH and Miss Middleton were accompanied by Ms June Trimble MBE, Director, The Hon Shane O’Neill, President and Mr David Gould, Chair of YouthAction Northern Ireland. The party was joined by keen supporters and patrons, The Rt Hon Lord O’Neill TD, and Lady O’Neill. The Royal couple listened to an overview on the work of the charity before moving to the Theatre.
Mr Aaron Cathcart and Ms Adele Gribbon, Youth Arts Apprentices, introduced a special performance of “Be Careful What You Wish For” a song from Ovid and “Beautiful Thing” an issue based piece. These were performed by YouthAction’s Rainbow Factory School of Performing Arts.
Following the performance Prince William met Mr Tom Finlay, Artistic Director of YouthAction, and accepted an invitation from Ms Trimble to present certificates to a number of Young Apprentices who have completed the Youth Work and Youth Arts Apprenticeship Scheme.
Ms Trimble offered a few words of thanks and went on to introduce the final piece of performing arts, a pieced called “Fame”.
His Royal Highness and Miss Middleton met the young people involved in the three performances, a number of YouthAction Sponsors and Patrons and the Young Apprentices.
Ms June Trimble invited the Royal couple to sign the visitors’ book and HRH and Miss Middleton accepted gifts of Rainbow Factory T-Shirts from Miss Mary McGurk and Mr Aidan Davidson, Chairs of the Rainbow Factory.
Notes to Editors
HRH Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton were greeted by_ _Dame Mary Peters DBE, The Lord-Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast, and went on to meet:
Councillor Ian Adamson OBE, Sheriff for the County Borough of Belfast,
Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP MLA, Member of Parliament for South Belfast,
The Rt Hon Peter D Robinson MLA, First Minister of Northern Ireland,
Mr Danny Kennedy MLA, Minister, Department for Employment and Learning
Mr Alan Shannon, Permanent Secretary, Department for Employment and Learning,
Ms Linda Wilson, Director of Families and Communities, Department of Education,
The Hon Shane O’Neill, President, YouthAction, Northern Ireland,
Ms June Trimble MBE, Director, YouthAction, Northern Ireland,
Mr David McKendry, Young Apprentice, YouthAction, Northern Ireland,
and
Miss Laura Marley, Young Apprentice, YouthAction, Northern Ireland.