The Prince of Wales has said Northern Ireland should not be imprisoned by its history.

Prince Charles visited Northern Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation centre yesterday at the conclusion of a trip which has been all about healing past wounds.

The daughter of Lord Mountbatten – the prince's great uncle who was killed by the IRA in 1979 on a boat off the west coast of Ireland – has supported the Corrymeela Centre in Ballycastle on the dramatic north coast for years in its work with victims of violence on all sides.

“We have all suffered too much, too many people’s loved ones have been killed or maimed,” said Prince Charles. “Surely it is time, as I said in Sligo, that we became the subjects of our history and not its prisoners.

“Surely, too, in the roots of Corrymeela, we can discover lessons that can serve as a model to all who strive for peace and reconciliation.”

Corrymeela was founded by Ray Davey, whose experience of suffering as a prisoner of war inspired him to wrestle with the question of building community amid conflict.