The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge learned the local lingo, with mixed success, on an official visit to Northern Ireland.
As students attempted to teach them some local expressions Prince William helped himself to a half-pint of Guinness and joked: “I’ve had a whiskey, now I’ve had a Guinness. I’m just ignoring the time.” '
William and Kate were visiting Derry-Londonderry, to meet young people across the city and hear how organisations are engaging across communities to promote positive relations.
They started at Ulster University’s Magee Campus, meeting nursing students who, earlier this year, they had spoken to via video call to hear about their experiences of studying during the pandemic, and doing placements on the frontline of the COVID-19 response in Northern Ireland.
During their visit, the couple also visited the campus’s petting zoo, organised by local mobile zoo company KidzFarm, which regularly comes to the campus to help students deal with mental health and anxiety issues.
Looking at the chickens in cages, Kate told the pet handler: “We’ve had lots of animals during lockdown. During lockdown, animals are often like therapy.” William said they had acquired “lots of chickens”.
The couple started their visit meeting nursing and paramedic students, and watching a resuscitation demonstration in a specially designed simulated ambulance – the only one of its kind in the region – built on campus to train the first year group on the newly-formed BSc Hons Paramedic Science programme in Northern Ireland.
The course started last week and is offered by the University to support the development of the paramedic profession in Northern Ireland and further afield.
The couple then made their way to the new School of Medicine, where medical students were having a lesson in anatomy, who are among the first group of students accepted into the university’s new School of Medicine, established this year in response to the nationwide shortage in the medical workforce.
The school will develop a new generation of doctors who will work in Northern Ireland and beyond, once their studies are compete.
Asking a group of students if they all had a background interest in medicine, one student, Nicola Hunter from County Antrim, told him: “I used to be work in banking.” William joked: “That’s very different! Banking doesn’t give you quite the same…you don’t bond so well with the patients.”
After talking to crowds of students who had gathered on campus to see them, and stopping at the petting zoo, the couple visited the student union, which was hosting a “Culture Shock” event, where they joined students to hear about their university experience outside of their studies and how these kinds of events are promoting an inclusive student body to help both local and international students adjust to student life.
Offered a selection of local food and drinks, William helped himself to a neat whisky while Kate opted for a half-pint of Guinness. “Now we’re talking, I’m going to go for a whisky,” said William.
Sitting at a table with a group of students, the couple then joined a game where they were shown Irish names on a screen and had to guess how to pronounce them. “I’m going to have another drink, I’m not doing very well at this,” joked William.
They also tucked into a range of local food, including wheaten bread, a brown soda bread made with wheat flour, and “Tayto crisps” potato chips.
Finally, it was time for them to learn some local lingo, as students attempted, with mixed success, to teach them some local expressions, with sheets of paper featuring phrases including “Give us a juke at that,” “Let’s head out for a wee dander,” and “This is pure wick, so it is.”
Leaving his barely-touched whiskey to one side, William helped himself to a half-pint of Guinness, joking: “I’ve had a whiskey, now I’ve had a Guinness. I’m just ignoring the time.”
Before leaving, the couple joined a group of students playing traditional instruments. As they listened to the music, one student shouted out “Dance,” with William gesturing to Kate: “You should! She loves dancing,” but Kate laughed “No, no, no!”
The Cambridges were last in Northern Ireland together in 2019, with each visiting solo last year, but it was the couple’s first visit to the area. During their national tour on the royal train last year, during a speech in Manchester, William had said they were sad not to be able to make it to Northern Ireland due to Covid protocols and hoped to get there soon.
After their visit, their student hosts Owen McClaskey, president of the Student Union, and Abigail McGarvey, a nursing student, spoke of their excitement at the royal visit.
“It was exciting to have them here, to see them very present and focussed on students, it’s good to see the royals coming to integrate with student culture,” said McClaskey, an international travel and tourism graduate.
“They were genuinely curious about student life and how it has been for us back on campus,” said McGarvey.
