This morning, Ceann Fine Derek Byrne received a message of appreciation from HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco in response to Saint Patrick’s Day wishes sent to the Royal Family of Monaco in celebration of their Irish heritage on their mother’s side of the family.

Prince Albert’s mother HSH Princess Grace was born Grace Kelly and visited Ireland on many occasions. In 1976 she bought the Kelly ancestoral home, a two roomed stone cottage in Drimurla near Newport in Co. Mayo where her grandfather John Kelly was born in 1857.

The princess had planned to build a holiday home on the land she had bought in Drimurla but was sadly killed in a car accident in 1982 before her plans were realised.

Prince Albert and the Royal Family of Monaco obviously hold their Irish ancestry very dearly as Prince Albert showed when he brought his wife HSH Princess Charlene to Ireland in April 2011.