TONI Bourke (15) had decided she wouldn't kiss the prince when he came to Mayo yesterday, in case he might turn into a frog, but she had lots of questions to throw at him.
"We've all heard it's very romantic being a prince and all that, but tell us what it's really like. Tell us something about a day in the life of a prince", she asked. The man she was talking to was His Royal Highness Prince Edward, of the "House of Windsor, wearing on the pinkie of his left hand a gold ring with a capital E topped by a tiny crown.
"Well, it's very unromantic, really", confessed the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth, enunciating every regal vowel and looking like a million kisses wouldn't reduce his vocabulary to a croak. "But it's best that you shouldn't know that, so that it can remain as romantic as you imagine it to be."
Toni, a student in Davitt College, Castlebar, was interviewing Prince Edward for community radio during his two hour visit to the town. She forgot one question which she had carefully rehearsed. When it came to music, did he prefer Queen or Prince? However, she queried him in general terms about his musical tastes. "I enjoy all sorts of music, but avoid being specific, because you can get landed with some pop group for the rest of your life."
Prince Edward, the second member of the British royal family to visit Mayo in recent times, was in Castlebar to meet youngsters who had participated in the challenging Gaisce programme, which encourages outstanding achievement among young people.
He had been present the day before when 28 of them were awarded gold medals by the President, Mrs Robinson, in Dublin Castle, and he met Mayo's participants at the splendid Castlebar campus of Galway Regional Technical College, probably the handsomest RTC campus in Ireland.
The prince caused little stir when he arrived in Castlebar, which once was a garrison town in the domain of Lord Lucan and still owes ground rent to the estate of missing "Lucky" Lucan.
He was driven in a British embassy limousine after landing at Knock Airport. At the time of his arrival, Mayo was shrouded in its customary mist, and he got little opportunity to savour its beauty.
After meeting 70 Gaisce students, the prince unveiled a plaque in the college courtyard to mark his visit. He was whisked away later to a lunch in Ashford Castle Hotel before leaving for London.