CONTROVERSY HAS RAGED following a decision by President Michael D Higgins to decline an invitation to attend a church service alongside Queen Elizabeth to mark Northern Ireland’s centenary is a political move.
Jeffrey Donaldson said it was a “retrograde step” in terms of reconciliation and added that he hopes the president will reconsider.
Unionists and the Alliance Party have asked for clarity after it emerged that Michael D Higgins would not be present at the event in Armagh next month.
The service has been titled as ‘marking the centenaries of the partition of Ireland and the foundation of Northern Ireland.’
He told reporters in Rome that what had started out as an invitation to a religious service had, in fact, become a political statement.
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