Tea talk: Prince Charles shakes hands with Irish nationalist leader

British Prince Charles began his visit to Ireland by meeting for the first time with Gary Adams, the leader of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, which is a symbol of improving relations between Britain and Ireland.

Charles and Adams shook hands and talked over tea at the National University of Ireland in Galway, AP reports.

Adams, a former head of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), had never met a member of the British royal family before.

Prince Charles is on a four-day visit to the Republic of Ireland and the British territory of Northern Ireland. It is Charles' third visit to the Republic of Ireland since the IRA declared a ceasefire in 1994.

Tomorrow the British prince will visit the village of Mulahmore, where his cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed by the IRA in 1979.