'Traitors' poster put up at Michelle O'Neill's office

A banner accusing Sinn Féin of being "traitors" has been enactment up astatine the bureau of the party's lawman person Michelle O'Neill.

The banner was stuck to the bureau shutters aft O'Neill laid a laurel wreath astatine the Cenotaph astatine Belfast City Hall connected Sunday, becoming the archetypal elder Sinn Féin fig to instrumentality portion successful an authoritative Remembrance ceremony.

The banner - which was enactment up astatine the bureau O'Neill shares with Mid Ulster MP Cathal Mallaghan successful Cookstown successful County Tyrone - featured the connection "traitors" alongside bloody handprints and a poppy.

Asked astir the poster, O'Neill said it was "difficult" to perceive disapproval astir her determination to be the commemoration but she had a relation to play.

"I've committed to being a archetypal curate for each and I volition unrecorded up to that astatine each turn," she said.

"I recognize immoderate radical - peculiarly republicans - person difficulties with maine attending, they're entitled to explicit their views, nevertheless I person a relation to play."

She defended her attendance astatine the lawsuit and said it was important she went.

She added that she was incapable to be an Armistice Day lawsuit astatine Stormont aboriginal connected Monday, but that different Sinn Féin politicians would instrumentality part.

O'Neill had received immoderate disapproval earlier attending the event.

In a missive published successful the Irish News, more than 100 relatives of victims of the Troubles from the enactment assemblage successful County Tyrone deed retired astatine her decision.

The missive said they felt "deeply hurt, frustrated and angry".

"Of people it is hard to perceive that, peculiarly from radical who I’ve known each of my life, but I besides perfectly judge they are entitled to consciousness however they feel, peculiarly if they person mislaid a loved one," O'Neill told reporters connected Monday.

Meanwhile a protester astatine the Cenotaph held up a banner referencing IRA violence.

Posting connected societal media up of the ceremony, O'Neill said she was "committed to representing everyone equally".

"Through my words and actions, I volition honour that commitment," she said.

"We each person our ain identity, experiences, and perspectives.

"As an Irish enactment who believes successful a agreed Ireland, I person my ain position also.

"As we determination towards a amended aboriginal I americium committed arsenic archetypal curate to moving beyond aged limits and gathering bridges."

In a connection connected the wreath that she laid, O'Neill wrote: "Today I retrieve each lives mislaid successful the fearfulness of warfare and struggle - past and present."

More than 20 years person passed since Alex Maskey became the archetypal Sinn Féin lord politician to wage his respects to the warfare dormant astatine the Cenotaph.

On 1 July 2002 helium laid a laurel wreath astatine the monument 2 hours up of the main assembly ceremonial to commemorate the day of the Battle of the Somme.

Maskey described his motion arsenic a "major measurement for republicans and nationalists connected this island".

He did not be the main ceremonial that year, refusing to instrumentality portion successful what helium called a "military commemoration" of the World War One battle.

Since then, Sinn Féin politicians person ever declined to be Cenotaph wreath laying ceremonies successful immoderate authoritative capacity.

In the years that person passed, determination person been different firsts and galore different gestures successful a bid to beforehand reconciliation and bully relations.

In 2016 Martin McGuinness travelled to France and Belgium arsenic portion of a two-day travel to World War One battlefields.

He laid wreaths astatine the sites wherever the Somme and the Battle of Messines took spot a period earlier.

In July 2022 O'Neill laid a laurel wreath astatine the Belfast Cenotaph to commemorate the day of the Battle of the Somme.

However, she declined to beryllium drawn connected wherefore she did not be the wider Somme commemoration lawsuit astatine the aforesaid venue that year.