Prince Plans Visit to Ireland

HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco is making plans for his first visit to Ireland (ancestral homeland of the Kelly clan) which will include playing in a golf tournament in memory of his beloved mother HSH Princess Grace. Lately the tourism industry in Ireland has been struggling and it is hoped that the super-rich hangers on who follow the Prince of Monaco like a pack of hounds will provide a much needed boost to the visitors economy. Kinsale Town Council wrote to the Irish consul to Monaco suggesting that the Prince visit their town (one of many). Mick Murphy, an activist of the Green Party arranged everything. He suggested the golf classic in honor of Princess Grace and planning it to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Irish Library in Monaco as a way to forge stronger ties between the Republic of Ireland and the Principality of Monaco.

The late Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace visited Ireland in 1961 when Princess Grace visited the birthplace of her grandfather John Kelly. Prince Rainier III opened the Irish Library in Monaco in 1984 as a tribute to his late wife and her love for her Irish heritage. The library includes the Princess' collection of Irish books, Irish-American sheet music, paintings by Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy as well as some books inscribed to the Prince and Princess of Monaco by the former Irish president and independence leader Eamon de Valera in 1961.