Overview
- Newly reported National Archives files show Irish officials balked at a 1996 plan for the then Prince of Wales to arrive on HMY Britannia, judging the optics of a royal yacht unacceptable.
- British ambassador Veronica Sutherland outlined a June 28 Galway Bay arrival with hospitality on board before a private weekend in Kerry and Cork, expanding an itinerary that had grown beyond initial expectations.
- Government secretary Frank Murray flagged the programme as more extensive than first proposed, including Haulbowline, and later relayed Dublin’s political and security concerns to the British side.
- Taoiseach John Bruton warned the yacht suggested opulence and superiority, urged the prince to fly into a regional airport instead, and Irish officials cautioned the visit should not proceed without an IRA ceasefire.
- The visit was ultimately confined to Northern Ireland with stops in Belfast and Londonderry, Britannia was decommissioned in December 1997, and a 2003 file shows Bertie Ahern refused HMS Ark Royal a Dublin berth over military symbolism and Iraq war publicity.