Prince Charles and his wife Camilla are to visit Ireland next month.
It's been confirmed that the royal couple will visit Ireland, and Northern Ireland, for four days beginning on May the 19th.
The prince and duchess visit the north every 12 months or so - but this will be the frist time in 13 years that Prince Charles has come south of the border, and the first time that Camilla will have joined him.
The precise details of the visits haven't yet been anounced - but it's expected that the Royal couple will visit Mullaghmore in County Sligo to visit the area where Lord Mountbatten was killed in an IRA bombing in 1979.
Lord Mountbatten was Charles' great-uncle and a personal confidant and mentor to the young prince in the years ahead of his marriage to Princess Diana.
In an official statement Clarence House said the visit was coming at the request of the British government.
That suggests it might be an unofficial follow-up to the official state visit by President Higgins to the UK a year ago, which in turn followed the visit of Charles mother Queen Elizabeth to Ireland in 2011. As it happens, today is Queen Elizabeth's 89th birthday.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, has welcomed the visit "as a further expression of the warm and friendly relations which now exist between us."
One person who won't be tagging along on the trip is Prince William.
It's been confirmed today that he's about to take unpaid leave from his role as an Air Ambulance pilot, with his wife the Duchess of Cambridge - the former Kate Middleton - now heavily pregnant with their second child.
That means Prince Charles can expect to be showered with gifts for his new grand-child when he arrives on Irish soil next month.
