THE TAOISEACH AND Northern Ireland Secretary have laid wreaths during the Remembrance Sunday commemoration at Enniskillen.

Micheál Martin accompanied Chris Bryant at the solemn event where hundreds gathered to pay their respects in the Co Fermanagh town which had been struck by a fatal IRA bombing almost 40 years ago.

Eleven people who had gathered to pay their respects to the war dead were killed and dozens injured in the no-warning blast on 8 November 1987, minutes before the Remembrance Sunday ceremony was due to start.

A 12th victim of the Poppy Day bombing died 13 years later having never woken from a coma.

Bryant laid a poppy wreath on behalf of the UK government while Martin placed a laurel wreath at the memorial.

The Taoiseach aid it was important for the government to stand in “solidarity with the people of Enniskillen”.

A range of other events to pay tribute to the war dead took place across Northern Ireland on Sunday.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, of the DUP, has stopped joint engagements with the First Minister Michelle O’Neill and, under powersharing conventions, is also blocking her from attending engagements in an official capacity on her own.

Bryant said it was “an enormous privilege” to be in Enniskillen, as he reflected on the “poignancy” of the occasion.

Asked about O’Neill being blocked from going to the Cenotaph in Belfast, the Northern Ireland Secretary said “remembrance is for the whole community” and added: “We need to get that right for the future.”

Pressed on whether he found it disappointing, he said: “The numbers of my disappointments over recent days have grown and grown and grown.

“And there are so many ways in which I just want people to get round the table, talk to each other, and settle a budget, apart from anything else.”

A spokesperson for Sinn Féin said: “Remembrance and commemoration is a very sensitive issue and should be above party politics.

“The DUP’s decision to block Michelle O’ Neill’s attendance politicises the Remembrance ceremony and is deeply regrettable.

“The DUP need to explain why they blocked an opportunity to build understanding and advance reconciliation.”

Martin’s contribution was a continuation of a tradition begun by former taoiseach Enda Kenny in 2012 by attending and placing a laurel wreath at the base of the memorial.

The 2012 move was seen as symbolic of greater recognition afforded in the Republic of Ireland to Irishmen who fought and died serving in the British Army in the First World War.

In 2024, then-Taoiseach and current Tánaiste Simon Harris did not attend the Enniskillen memorial, citing the absence of a representative from the Northern Ireland Executive for the decision.

His Fine Gael party was represented by then-minister Heather Humphreys who was not seeking re-election in the campaign that had been running at the time.

Asked if Martin’s attendance showed his 2024 absence was a move to continue campaigning in the election, Harris told reporters in Cork: “I remember my officials in the Department of An Taoiseach providing me with a very clear view in relation to that.

“Obviously, there’s a very particular situation now with relation to the First and deputy First Minister not attending events jointly.

“When it was the situation that they did, it was generally attended by the Taoiseach here and when they didn’t, the minister of the government would attend.”

In Dublin, President Catherine Connolly laid a wreath in remembrance of all those who died in war at the National Service of Remembrance at St Patrick’s Cathedral.

It will be her first time to do so since taking office at the end of last year.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald also attended the Dublin service.