An invite to King Charles III's Coronation was the hottest ticket in town – and a student nurse from Belfast was lucky enough to be among the 2,000 guests at Saturday's event.
Claire Thompson, 29, joined royalty, world leaders and celebrities at the Coronation at Westminster Abbey.
Royal enthusiasts from Northern Ireland were also among the hundreds of thousands from across the world who made their way to London at the weekend for the King’s coronation.
READ MORE: All NI political parties attending coronation is sign of progress, says James Nesbitt
Claire was rewarded with a prestigious invite for making healthcare more accessible for patients with learning disabilities by teaching sign language online.
Claire, from East Belfast is a second year Learning Disability Nursing student at Queen's University and has taken to TikTok to teach other students Makaton signs to use in work.
Makaton is a unique language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate.
Claire started 'Makaton Mondays' in January of last year where she records a short video of herself each week with a new sign that people can learn and take with them - whether in a healthcare setting or their daily life.
She shares her weekly lessons on Tiktok, Instagram and Twitter so that a greater range of people can have access to Makaton and hopefully learn something with every video.
And on Saturday, the nursing student landed a seat right behind ITV presenting duo Ant and Dec in the Abbey as one of the over 850 community and charity representatives invited to attend.
She struck up a conversation with the presenting duo when they arrived in their seats and even joked that they should greet former Boris Johnson with their famous phrase, “Evening, Prime Minister” when he entered the Abbey.
The I'm a Celeb presenters famously mocked Mr Johnson live on air after news emerged of the Downing Street Christmas party during the Covid lockdown.
Claire told Belfast Live: "We were asked to arrive on Lambeth Bridge at 7am before myself and the other community representatives were ushered into Westminster Abbey.
"We were shown to the area where we were allowed to sit in and could select our own seats. I saw Ant and Dec’s names on their reserved seats so I obviously decided to take the free seat behind them.
"They were so lovely and we had a bit of banter but I also told them about 'Makaton Mondays' which was cool. I was honoured to meet Ant and Dec because I've loved them for as long as I could remember."
Claire also met singer Lionel Richie, who performed at the coronation concert in Windsor Castle last night.
"My husband Josh had flown over with me for the weekend but he wasn't invited to the ceremony. He walked me to the Abbey on Saturday morning and saw all the famous faces too including Judi Dench and Stephen Fry which was amazing," she added.
"From my seat inside I could see everyone walking in and out. The lady sitting beside me was incredible and we chatted away.
"During the coronation as King Charles walked past us she pinched me and said ‘this isn't a dream, you're here and it’s really happening’.
"I just couldn't believe I was there when I was looking around at all those other people wearing medals and who had done amazing things and I'm going to myself 'I'm just on TikTok!'"
"After all the world leaders and royals left the Abbey I got a selfie with Ant and Dec and Lionel Ritchie. I don’t think it will fully hit me that I was actually there for a while yet."
Elsewhere as King Charles III and Queen Camilla made their way to and from Westminster Abbey, many from Northern Ireland got a prime view of the couple having camped out on The Mall close to Buckingham Palace.
Among them was royal enthusiast Canon Derek Kerr, a Church of Ireland rector based in Randalstown, who takes every opportunity he can to attend special royal events, most recently for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II last September.
He said: "The atmosphere on The Mall on Friday night and into Saturday was just excellent and great fun. The rain was there and there were some brollies up but most people were very good and took them down again when the main processions were passing us.
"My highlight was seeing the newly crowned King and Queen travelling back to Buckingham Palace in the really old Gold State Coach. It was marvellous to see that up close for the first time instead of on the television.
"I moved with the crowd up towards the palace gates for the flypast. What a spectacle.
"It was a lovely day and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I got soaked and despite being awake for 36 hours. Hopefully I'll not be doing that again in a hurry but I loved every minute."
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