SINN FÉIN DEPUTY leader Mary Lou McDonald has said urged anyone planning to protest against the visit of the Queen next month to do so peacefully.

McDonald said that any protests organised by Sinn Féin would be “non-confrontational” and added that she was conscious that Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip where “an elderly couple visiting the country,” reports the Irish Times.

She was not able to confirm any details of protests, if any, planned by Sinn Féin however party leader Gerry Adams described the timing of Her Majesty’s impending visit as “particularly insensitive”.

Adams cited the fact that the Queen will be arriving on 17 May, the anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which killed 33 people in 1974 and pointed to the alleged involvement of British military intelligence, reports the BBC.

He said:

The British authorities have repeatedly refused to release the files in their possession on this attack.

Despite an all-party Dail motion, the Irish government has failed to press the British for the release of these files.

Details of the Queen’s four day visit were announced earlier this week and will include a visit to the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin and a speech at a state dinner in Dublin Castle.

It is the first visit of a British monarch to Ireland since independence.