There were a number of walkouts and some tense exchanges during last night's BBC Question Time programme, on which the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, appeared. During the programme, a member of the audience tried to confront Mr Adam's directly. He was quickly ushered from the studio by BBC security men.
Afterwards, the man said: "I just wanted to make my protest".
Off camera, four other members of the audience walked out of the studio, also in protest.
Ten minutes later, another man from the audience, apparently a young DUP member, criticised the BBC for allowing Mr Adams to appear on the programme when "he had not condemned violence".
He too walked out of the studio as panelists tried to answer his question.
Mr Adams described the walkouts as "a nice wee bit of theatrics".
Mr Adams said Sinn Fein was committed to a peace strategy. The Minister for Political Development, Mr Paul Murphy, said that any settlement could only be achieved on the basis of consent.