The Princess of Wales has been celebrating St Patrick’s Day with a half-pint of Guinness.
Kate, dressed in a bottle-green coat and percher hat, presented shamrock to officers of the Irish Guards at a parade in Wellington Barracks, central London.
She also bought a round of drinks for the troops, with money put behind the bars serving junior guardsmen and officers to mark the Irish Guards’ 125th anniversary.
Pic: PA
The princess presented operational medals to soldiers recently deployed in Iraq and awarded long service and good conduct medals to two soldiers.
Kate also met the regiment’s mascot, Irish wolfhound Turlough Mor.
The Princess of Wales pets Turlough Mor, the Irish Guards mascot, who is also known as Seamus. Pic: PA
Pic: AP
Pic: Reuters
Huge crowds braved the biting cold to gather at the gates of Wellington Barracks and catch a glimpse of the ceremony.
Kate, who is colonel of the regiment, missed the Guards’ celebrations last year after being diagnosed with cancer.
After Monday’s parade, the princess posed for official photographs with the regiment.
She laughed and joked with soldiers as two children playfully held up the pictures, before joining soldiers in the junior ranks’ cookhouse, where she enjoyed some Guinness.
Pic: Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace
Pic: PA
Nursing the drink, she chatted with soldiers about their experiences on deployment.
She said: “Being able to manage that work-life balance – it’s tough.”
Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
Kate later visited the sergeants’ mess, where she met families of soldiers and heard about their experiences.
Meanwhile, officers from the regiment deployed in eastern England paused their training of Ukrainian troops to present shamrocks to their recruits as part of Operation Interflex, a UK-led programme providing battlefield skills to Ukrainian soldiers.
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The Irish Guards have played a key role in the programme, which has trained more than 45,000 Ukrainian recruits since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Millions of people in Ireland and around the world are celebrating their Irish heritage and the country’s patron saint today.
