The Duchess of Cambridge has arrived for a reception at Belfast’s iconic Empire Music Hall in a stunning Missoni gown with husband Prince William as he uses his speech to call for calm and unity over Brexit.
Kate and William, who arrived for a surprise visit to the city on Wednesday, are attending a party celebrating young people who are making a difference in Northern Ireland this evening.
The Duchess, 37, stunned in a £1,590 Missoni metallic-knit wrap dress featuring a mid-length pleated skirt, just hours after donning her sport gear for an impromptu football match.
The mother-of-three paired the powder blue gown with her signature Gianvito suede stilettos, costing £505, and a nude Mulberry clutch, as she was greeted by Lord Lieutenant of Belfast Fionnuala Jay-OXCHARXBoyl.
Meanwhile the second-in-line to the throne will use the opportunity to say Britain needs strong leadership during a speech in Belfast tonight in a nod to the current deadlock at Westminster over leaving the EU.
The Duchess of Cambridge wore a Missoni gown tonight. Kate and William, who arrived for a surprise visit to the city on Wednesday, are attending a party celebrating young people who are making a difference in Northern Ireland
Kate arriving at Empire Music Hall. The Duchess, 37, stunned in a £1,590 Missoni metallic-knit wrap dress in a flattering powder blue, featuring a mid-length pleated skirt, just hours after donning her sport gear for an impromptu football match
His intervention comes just a month after the Queen highlighted the need for respect and seeking out common ground in an address seen as a veiled reference to the bitterness over Brexit.
His words will be particularly significant because much of the Brexit tension is over Northern Ireland’s border and the backstop demanded by Brussels to keep trade flowing without the need for controls.
The Duke of Cambridge’s message at a gala dinner in Belfast could also be seen as a prompt to Stormont to resume its work after the power-sharing deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein collapsed two years ago.
At the event a band called LARKS will take to the stage tonight, and guests will encompass representatives from Northern Ireland’s business, arts and sport sectors including Dame Mary Peters who was today appointed Lady Companion of the Most Noble of the Garter by the Queen.
Her Majesty and the rest of the royals are expected to remain politically neutral.
Using barely coded language in a speech to her local Women’s Institute in Norfolk, The Queen said in January she preferred ‘respecting different points of view’.
Her intervention split opinion with many praising the Queen but others claiming she should not get involved.
She also used her Christmas message to the nation to preach a similar message of unity.
Should the Queen or Prince William speak out about Brexit?
As Head of State The Queen has to remain strictly neutral with respect to all political matters.
She is unable to vote or stand for election – as are other senior members of the royal family.
But on rare occasions the Queen will use a key speech, such as her Christmas speech, to make more general observations about life in Britain if she think it’s important.
In the past two months she spoke out twice about respecting opposing views in an obvious nod to the current crisis surrounding Brexit.
Prince William’s intervention in Northern Ireland – a subtle message about Brexit and Stormont – is also highly significant.
The Monarch has several ceremonial and formal roles in relation to the government, including the State Opening of Parliament where she reveals upcoming legilsation.
The Queen also has a special relationship with the Prime Minister, retaining the right to appoint and also meeting with him or her on a regular basis.
But she is not allowed to push them in any political direction.
However, in the past, others have let slip her views on major issues.
In 2012 the BBC apologised to her when it said the Queen had voiced concerns to the previous government about the inability of UK authorities to arrest and deport hate preacher Abu Hamza.
More recently The Sun defended its own claims that the Queen was pro-Brexit and the BBC claimed that Her Majesty said that Britain should ‘just get on with’ leaving the European Union at a private lunch.
William’s hastily-arranged two-day visit to Northern Ireland with his wife Kate comes as MPs argue over the terms of Brexit with just over a month to go until the scheduled departure date.
The royals began their trip with a visit to Windsor Park football stadium to find out about outreach programmes and take part in a game of football with local children.
The tour will include a meeting with a youth charity in the border region of Fermanagh.
Even though the royals tend to steer well clear of politics, their visits are often organised in conjunction with the government to assist Britain’s wider political and economic agenda at home and abroad.
The shock result of the 2016 EU membership referendum has forced the royals into diplomatic overdrive.
Not long after the referendum, William toured Canada, then Europe, in what was seen as a bridge-building exercise as Britain looks to retain old alliances with European and build new trade ties with the Commonwealth.
Strategic royal visits have multiplied since then.
But the trip to Northern Ireland, where the IRA fought a bloody campaign against British rule for three decades until 1998, is particularly sensitive.
Since the end of the conflict, residents of the province have become accustomed to a free-flowing border with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state.