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William and Kate to make first official visit to Ireland

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are to make their first official visit to Ireland, Kensington Palace has announced.

Second in line William and Kate will travel to the republic between Tuesday March 3 and Thursday March 5.

The trip will take place at the request of the Foreign Office.

The British Embassy in Dublin tweeted: “We look forward to welcoming The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Ireland next month.”

Further details of the brief tour will be released in due course.

In 2011, the Queen made a historic journey to the Irish Republic.

Amid unprecedented security, she became the first British monarch to travel there in 100 years and the first since the nation gained independence from Britain.

The Queen at Croke Park
The Queen visiting Croke Park, Dublin, where 14 people were killed by British forces during a Gaelic football match in 1920 (Julien Behal/PA)

She bowed her head in Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance to pay tribute to the rebels who rose up against British rule in 1916, spoke Irish in an address to a state banquet and visited Croke Park stadium, where British forces shot dead 14 spectators at a Gaelic football match in 1920.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have made five visits to Ireland over the past five years, a sign of the closer Anglo-Irish relations ushered in by the Queen’s tour.

William and Kate’s trip, which unusually was announced in advance, is likely to be seen as a diplomacy visit in the wake of Brexit.