Harry and Meghan charm young and old during Dublin visit
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex wowed young and old at some of Dublin's most famous landmarks on a whistle-stop tour of the Irish capital.
On a day full of warm encounters with Irish well-wishers, three-year-old Gaelic sports fan Walter Cullen played with Meghan's hair during a visit to the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association at Croke Park while another young supporter tugged Harry's beard.
Those playful exchanges at the famous stadium came ahead of a 25-minute walkabout in the grounds of Trinity College, where the royals chatted and laughed with enthusiastic crowds.
During the meet and greet on the university's cobbled square, Meghan told one fan that Dublin was her favourite city.
Harry followed in the footsteps of his grandmother the Queen by making the symbolic visit to Croke Park.
The stadium is steeped in history and witnessed one of the most infamous incidents of Ireland's War of Independence when British soldiers opened fire on a crowd of spectators in 1920, killing 14 people.
Dozens of children played Gaelic football and hurling as the couple watched on Wednesday morning.
They walked hand-in-hand around the sprawling pitch as GAA representatives talked the couple through the rules of Gaelic games.
They spoke to young children about their involvement in sport and what it meant to them playing at Croke Park.
Earlier, Harry's mind was on another sport when he gave England a boost ahead of their crucial World Cup match, declaring football was coming home as he met Ireland's president.
The duke was asked by a reporter if "football was coming home" - the chant from the hugely popular Three Lions anthem.
As Harry and Meghan posed for a picture with President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina, the duke replied laughing "most definitely".
The duke and duchess met the president and his wife at the head of state's official residence Aras an Uachtarain, the former British Viceregal lodge in Dublin's Phoenix Park.
They rang a Peace Bell installed in the garden of the grand 18th century house in 2008 to mark the 10th anniversary of Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace agreement and toured the grounds with the presidential couple and their two Bernese mountain dogs, Brod and Sioda.
Meghan, who along with Harry signed the visitors' book at the Aras, wore a Roland Mouret dress for the presidential visit. She later changed into a black trouser suit.
Prior to embarking on the walkabout at Trinity, the couple were shown the historic Book of Kells, one of Ireland's ancient treasures.
Warm smiles and banks of mobile phones greeted the couple in the square outside.
Elizabeth Ring, a 19-year-old law student, said of her conversation with the couple: "Meghan said Dublin was her favourite city. Harry said he'd come back with his jacket over his head, incognito."
Emma Boden, 10, gave the couple a handmade card.
"Meghan said thank you very much and she told me that she loved a hand written card," she said.
"Then she shook my hand. She smells really, really nice and now my hand smells really nice as well. I don't think I'll wash them for a long time."
David Balfany, on holiday in Dublin from the United States, said he had invited Meghan to a student reunion at Northwestern University where they were both students.
"She told me she didn't think she would be able to make it," he said.
Pauline Beatty was delighted to have got a hug and kiss from Harry. "When I asked him for the hug he said: 'I can't hug you because then I'll have to hug everybody else.' So I just grabbed him. He was scarlet."
Two girls wearing "When Harry Met Meghan" T-shirts were very excited to meet the couple.
"Harry asked me where we got the T-shirts and I told him Asda," said Stephanie Jordan from Belfast. "He asked if they were really selling them there?"
The couple later stopped for a private lunch before continuing on the packed final day of their pre-Brexit charm offensive in Ireland, which comes less than a month after Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visited the country.
