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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Lauren Harte

Connie the corgi gets the royal seal of approval during Hillsborough walkabout

The King and Queen Consort were greeted by flag-waving and cheering supporters on their arrival at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down earlier today, the royal residence in Northern Ireland.

But it was a corgi in the crowd who almost stole the show during the walkabout by the royal couple.

The late Queen owned more than 30 corgis during her reign and was known for her love of the breed.

Read more: Warm smiles and sunshine as thousands greet new King and Queen in Royal Hillsborough

And among those waiting to greet King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Hillsborough was Connie, a Welsh corgi, with her owner Eleanor Flynn.

Her patience was rewarded with a regal pat on the head and a shake of the paw when Eleanor held her up to the new monarch.

The King paused his walkabout to point and chuckle as he spotted Connie in the large crowd gathered just outside the castle gates.

Connie the corgi proved to be a hit with the new King, whose late mother was very fond of the breed (Justin Kernoghan/Belfast Live)

Eleanor, 20, who is originally from England but now lives just outside Hillsborough, told Belfast Live : "Connie is four years old and originally from Luton. She's really loving all the attention today.

"She got the royal seal of approval from the King with a pat on the head and a shake of the paw. I don't think she realises it but I won't be washing her head again for a while!

"We were going to keep back a bit from the crowd but a few people told us to go to the front so we brought Connie forward."

Eleanor added: "I think he really enjoyed meeting her and said 'oh we've had a lot of those at home'. He seemed like a really nice person and the atmosphere here today was lovely.

"He took his time to walk the whole way along and have a little conversation with everybody, which was a really nice thing for him to do."

"It was a really nice moment for us all. I just brought her along because the Queen really loved corgis so much and they are such a lovely breed of dog."

The new King's delight was plain for all to see (PA Wire/PA Images)

It has already been confirmed that Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah, the Duchess of York, will look after the Queen's cherished corgis following her death.

A spokeswoman for Andrew, the Duke of York, said he and the duchess would take in Muick and Sandy - pets the late monarch received as gifts from her son.

Most of the Queen’s corgis were descended from her first corgi, Susan, who was gifted to her on her 18th birthday in 1944.

The Queen looked after her own dogs as much as possible and during weekends spent at Windsor, the corgis went too and lived in her private apartments.

She fed them whenever her busy schedule permitted and also enjoyed walking the dogs. In early 2021, she was given two new puppies, one dorgi and one corgi, as a gift by Prince Andrew while staying at Windsor during lockdown.

The Queen named the dorgi Fergus after her uncle who was killed in action during the First World War, and the corgi Muick, pronounced Mick, after Loch Muick on the Balmoral estate.

But five-month-old Fergus died just weeks later. He was later replaced with a new corgi puppy, from Andrew and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie for her official 95th birthday, who the Queen named Sandy.

The puppies were a constant source of joy for the Queen during lockdown, her dresser Angela Kelly said.

The Platinum Jubilee celebrations highlighted the Queen's love of corgis earlier this year with a “corgi derby” at Musselburgh racecourse, plus a gathering of 70 corgis at Balmoral.

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