Princess Kate and Prince William look all loved-up on secret trip to Northern Ireland

The Prince and Princess of Wales have arrived in Northern Ireland for a series of engagements.

The Prince and Princess of Wales are visiting Northern Ireland today (Image: Getty)

The Prince and Princess of Wales were the picture of royal romance today as they enjoyed friendly “banter” on a fire engine ride, attempted to recover a mock casualty and enjoyed some cider on a visit to Northern Ireland. Kate and William were all smiles for the unannounced trip, sharing frequent giggles with one another as they visited innovative organisations that showcase growth and investment in rural areas.

Putting their best foot forward in matching brown suede boots, their first engagement saw them tour a new college training firefighters and try their hand at saving mock casualties who had fallen into the raging torrents of a flood simulator, but failed to throw the line quickly enough. The Princess, wearing a bespoke Alexander McQueen coat in forest green, delighted in being the passenger of a fire engine and joked that she wanted a fire engine to travel at top speed with sirens blaring.

Shortly after arriving at the 50-acre site of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Learning and Development College, outside Cookstown in Co Tyrone, they were taken a short distance in the emergency vehicle.

Princess Kate is wearing a forest green coat (Image: Getty Images)

The Prince and Princess of Wales were non-stop giggles on their Northern Ireland trip (Image: PA)

But Kate jokingly asked the driver to pick up speed, and even asked if her husband could take the wheel, according to newly qualified firefighters Caoimhe McNeice, 25, and Piarais McCaffery, 32, who joined the royal guests in the vehicle.

Ms McNeice said about the driver: “He got us there safely, I think he was on a limit for his speed.

“The princess was wanting the sirens on, but he was strictly told no. It was just a bit of banter, she said ‘I’d love to drive at the real speed and have the sirens on’.”

She added: “She was wanting the prince to drive, but the driver got us there anyway.”

The Prince and Princess of Wales rode in a fire engine (Image: Getty Images)

William and Kate appeared impressed by the facilities at the college, which officially opened in May, which can replicate a range of dangerous scenarios in the safety of a learning environment with instructors at hand.

This includes a flood water rescue simulator – one of only two in the world at a Fire service training facility.

At the huge water facility that created rapids around the shell of a building, the couple watched staff patiently recover a mock casualty, then tried throwing lines to volunteers who jumped in the fast-moving water to re-create someone being swept away.

The competitive couple appeared to be disappointed that both of their lines missed, but instructor Pete Sloane reassured them as the water was moving at 24knots, making it difficult to hit a moving target.

With chief fire and rescue officer Aidan Jennings, they watched others climbing and securing ladders and practising lowering a stretcher secured with ropes from a replica rooftop.

They were also impressed to learn that the top of the main building at the college doubles as a replica of a ship’s deck, a train carriage nearby offers another realistic scenario, while a fake stretch of motorway behind it is used to train firefighters to rescue people from road traffic collisions.

Mr McCaffery said the princess had told him the college meant “we’re ahead of the game” and that whenever they were called out to an incident, they would know what to do.

Before leaving, the couple were presented with three red “Bump” caps for Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Princes Louis – baseball caps with a reinforced inner layer usually worn to tackle wildfires.

They then visited Mallon Farm, which had previously been a dairy farm, and were informed about the sustainable methods used to grow flax for linen production.

The Prince and Princess of Wales threw a line to a ‘casualty’ in a flood water simulation (Image: Getty Images)

Helen Keys MBE and Charlie Mallon of Mallon Farm showed them flax fields and a machine from the 1940s being used to process flax to make linen.

Kate, who had changed into a brown skirt, the Juru Cardigan from sustainable British womenswear brand With Nothing Underneath and a green jacket, tried an old mechanical technique of breaking bunches of flax to soften it, before being shown a large restored 1940s machine, which she said was “like a hairbrush”.

Their day-trip to Northern Ireland concluded with the prince and princess baking sweet bread and helping to harvest golden delicious and Bramley apple varieties.

They had a tour of an award-winning, family-run farm for Long Meadow Cider, in County Armagh, Northern Ireland’s so-called ‘Orchard County’.

The Prince and Princess of Wales make a potato and apple cake during a visit to Long Meadow Cider (Image: PA)

Long Meadow Farm has been owned by the McKeever family for three generations making cider, apple juice and apple cider vinegar since 1968

They were shown the farm’s apple pressing machine and Kate said: “We tried this at home with a hand press. It was quite good fun with the children. It was very messy.”

They were given a glass of apple cider vinegar and both sipped it, and asked if they had tasted it before Kate replied: “I like that. I haven’t take it as shot like this before but I love to put it salads and things like that.” Turning to William she said: “I put it on the food at home.”

The Prince and Princess of Wales pick apples during a visit to Long Meadow Cider in Portadown (Image: PA)

Heading outside, the royals helped to fill baskets of apples from the trees – which the prince said looked like “something from Harry Potter”.

They then donned aprons to make potato apple bread first rolling out the flour and potato.

Kate told William halfway through his effort: “Try and keep it a circle.”

Looking down at his rectangular effort, Wills said to laughter: “A circle? Now you tell me! If you look this way it looks like a circle. This is a new variety!”

The royal couple last visited Northern Ireland together was in October 2022, shortly after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Sources: https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/2121011/princess-kate-prince-william-northern-ireland-latest