Castlebar student presents Queen with bouquet

ALL SMILES Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, pictured with Claremorris native and Provost of Trinity College Dublin, DrJohn Hegarty, at Trinity College Dublin, where she shook hands with Castlebar student, Rebecca Kilkenny.?Pic: Maxwells

Rebecca keeps up Kilkelly family’s royal tradition


Trevor Quinn

The introduction of Castlebar native Rebecca Kilkelly to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II last Tuesday allowed the Sociology and French student to follow in the footsteps of her great grandmother who made a similar presentation to Queen Victoria in 1900 on the streets of Dublin.
Rebecca was specially selected to hand over a bouquet of flowers from the National Botanic Gardens to the Queen on behalf of Trinity College Dublin.
As an eighteen year-old head of her class, Rebecca’s great grandmother Alice Smyth made a floral presentation to Queen Victoria on behalf of the Loreto Abbey school in Rathfarnham way back in 1900 as the elderly monarch passed through Rathfarnham on horse drawn carriage.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Rebecca said growing up she would have been made aware of her ancestor’s meeting with Queen Victoria on regular occasions all those years ago.
“My mother would be very much in to history so she would have talked about it.”
Rebecca says she was proud to represent Trinity College and meet the Queen and she added that her great-grandmothers meeting all those years ago was at the forefront of her mind. “Certainly I was very much aware that I wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to meet the Queen if it wasn’t for my great-grandmother. Naturally, my grandmother and my mother were very excited about it.”
Just two weeks ago Rebecca was asked by the college authorities if she would do the honours and make the presentation.
“I only found out about it two weeks ago and I was told to keep it a secret just in case it didn’t materialise and for security reasons so the only person I told was my mother. That was hard, but if I had told my friends that would probably have made me more nervous. As it was I was quite calm.”
Rebecca says the Queen was very personable and pleasant and she felt very much at ease. “She was very friendly and she smiled and listened to what provost John Hegarty had to say about my family history, so I was very calm immediately after that. I told her the story and she commented that we’d obviously missed a generation, and then the Duke asked me about what course I was studying.”
Rebecca admits that she was slightly taken aback by the level of press photographers, journalists and cameramen that were present. She said she did not expect to see a ‘whirlwhind of media’ prior to the floral presentation. “At the time I didn’t realise RTÉ and all of the reporters would be there. That was quite a shock. t was such an historic occasion though so I suppose it was to be expected.”
Rebecca said she believed the whole visit had been a major success and she anticipates the visit will have a lasting legacy in the relationship between the two countries.
“I think it’s a sign of changing times. Obviously there was a bit of trouble but I think it was great to see her get such a genuinely warm welcome by the Irish people.” Rebecca is a daughter of Fergus and Rowena Kilkelly of Kilkelly Travel in Castlebar.