IN/0450

Prince's picture fetches right royal sum
By Aeneas Bonner

NEWRY businesswoman Agnes McCourt yesterday paid IR£53,000 for a lithograph by Prince Charles at a fund-raising auction for the Omagh Fund.
The 55-year-old mother of three said that she bought the signed lithograph as a "personal contribution to all the people who have been involved in Unislim Clubs", of which she is founder member and managing director.
And with the money raised at the Dublin auction on Wednesday night going to Omagh bomb victims, she thanked all the Omagh women who supported Unislim weight-reducing classes in the town over 25 years:
"Unislim is geared mainly towards women and so many women and children suffered on that dreadful day. There's a little bit of every one of us in that £53,000." Ms McCourt said she had spent the day in Dublin playing golf and had thought about the auction only when her sister reminded.her that evening.
She explained how she turned up at the National Concert Hall halfway through the event - still in her golf clothes - and started a bidding war for the "Windsor Castle. North Aspect' signed lithograph at 1R£4,000.
"It was neck-and-neck with another gentleman - nobody else came in from £4,000 to £53,000," she said.
"He would nod his head, I nodded mine, while around us there was total silence. I just kept focusing on the auctioneer, while my sister was slowly passing out behind me!
"My heart was pounding, and at £53,000 I thought is this ever going to stop?"
Ms McCourt said that she thought Unislim's goals of weight-reduction and healthy eating are something Prince Charles would take an interest in and hoped he would be happy the picture was with "somebody who is a little bit like himself."
I talk to the flowers now and again too - I can identify with him in a lot of ways," she laughed.
With the picture staying firmly in Unislim's Newry head office, Ms McCourt now hopes some day she will get to see the real 'Windsor Castle. North Aspect' with Prince Charles in person.