King Charles III and Queen Camilla headed to Northern Ireland this week for a royal visit, with two fascinating brooches packed in Camilla’s luggage for the trip.
Charles and Camilla began their annual visit to Northern Ireland with a visit to Thompson Dock in Belfast, where ships like the Titanic were finished before their launch. (There’s a museum dedicated to the Titanic nearby that is well worth a visit.)
This royal stop, though, was related to music. Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, the traditional Irish arts festival and competition, will be held in Belfast in August, and the King and Queen tried their hand at playing the bodhran during a musical preview of the event.
Next, Queen Camilla made a solo visit to Belfast’s Fane Street Primary School. The royal website notes that Camilla had “received a bundle of letters from pupils, warmly inviting Her Majesty to visit” the school. She met with students during a school assembly and learned about ways that the school is supporting pupils from refugee families.
The first day of the visit wrapped up with audiences at Hillsborough Castle, including the meeting pictured above with First Minister Michelle O’Neill.
For the day’s events, Camilla wore a favorite day dress with a bright floral print, paired with a powder blue coat and a pair of spectator pumps.
Her jewelry included her favorite pair of diamond and pearl drop earrings, a personal necklace and bracelets, and a special diamond and turquoise shamrock brooch.
Camilla has been wearing the petite shamrock since her days as Duchess of Cornwall. These brooches were popular, especially in the 1890s and 1900s, and numerous examples dot the pages of wedding gift lists in British newspapers from the era. This particular brooch, though, is a royal heirloom. It was a wedding present from the Dowager Duchess of Portland to the future Queen Elizabeth II in 1947. The Dowager Duchess, née Miss Winifred Dallas-Yorke, had herself received a “diamond pin” in the “shape of a shamrock” as one of her wedding presents in 1889.
On Wednesday, the King and Queen headed out separately to begin the day, with Queen Camilla making a visit to the village of Hillsborough. There, she met with locals during a walkabout and visited several long-established businesses.
Camilla chose the diamond and turquoise shamrock once again for the Hillsborough visit, pairing it with her diamond and sapphire tassel earrings, which are modern pieces from Fabergé’s Imperial collection.
Later in the day on Wednesday, the King and Queen hosted a royal garden party on the grounds of Hillsborough Castle, welcoming “guests from across Northern Ireland’s voluntary and charitable sectors.”
Queen Camilla wore a favorite blue ensemble, paired with diamond and sapphire earrings and a rather spectacular diamond and sapphire butterfly brooch.
The photographer Chris Jackson treated us to a magnificent close-up picture of the brooch at today’s garden party. The faceted sapphires shine beautifully here, as do the design details of the wings and the gold antennae and legs. You all know that I’m terrible at discerning different types of insects, and we’ve discussed before whether the brooch is meant to resemble a butterfly or a moth. I think the close-up showing the details of the antennae establish firmly that it’s a butterfly. Any lepidopterists want to weigh in?
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