Protest warning: Republican Sinn Féin last week called on its followers "to oppose the loyalist march due to take place through the centre of Dublin".
In a statement issued last Wednesday, and carried in its newspaper Saoirse, the party's president, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, set out three reasons why the Love Ulster parade should be opposed. He called on party supporters to assemble at the Parnell monument "before the loyalist march on February 25th".
RSF claimed the purpose of the parade was "very definitely part of a softening-up process for an official visit to Dublin by an English queen claiming part of Ireland".
Mr Ó Bradaigh added that "on the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising the siren voices tell Republicans to ignore this loyalist march".
In a statement yesterday, the party's vice-president, Des Dalton, said the violence showed "how out of touch the 26-County political establishment was with the depth of opposition to the routing of a loyalist march through Dublin".
Mr Dalton claimed "the people of Dublin" had shown "their rejection of the ideology of sectarian hatred and bigotry represented by those who organised this march. The routing of such a march through Dublin was a completely irresponsible act with scant thought given to the consequences or the dangers it posed to people."
He said there was a "gulf" between "the 26-county political establishment and the views of ordinary Irish people".
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