THE DUP leader Arlene Foster has urged all those burning flags or posters to "wise up" after an image of the late Martin McGuinness was put on a loyalist bonfire in Co Derry.
Mrs Foster, who shared power as First Minister with Mr McGuinness - a former IRA commander - as Deputy First Minister up until the Executive's collapse in 2017, said that bonfires should be about "welcoming rather than communicating hate".
She made the remarks in a tweet posted on Saturday after the image, taken from a poster advertising a charity walk for cancer services, was placed on a bonfire along with Irish tricolours in the Tullyally area of Derry ahead of the Apprentice Boys commemoration of the siege of the city.
"Anyone burning flags or posters on bonfires needs to wise up," the DUP leader said.
"Bonfires/beacons were lit to welcome King William III to our shores. The modern tradition of lighting a bonfire was to commemorate this.
"Bonfires should be about welcoming rather than communicating hate," she added.
In a tweet, Mr McGuinness' son, Fiachra, asked people to "replace fear, hate and anger with love and you will be free".
Sinn Féin Foyle MLA Karen Mullan said: "This behaviour stands in stark contrast to the work that Martin McGuinness did to build reconciliation and reach out the hand of friendship to all communities."
The PSNI said it was treating the placing of the image as a "hate incident" and had engaged in efforts to have the poster removed.
"While the posters were indeed removed for a period of time, they were put back in place before the bonfire was lit.
"Police recognise the hurt this will have caused to individuals and are treating this as a hate incident."
Stephen Martin, the PSNI deputy chief constable, tweeted that the Tullyally bonfire was "just as disgraceful" as an anti-internment bonfire in Newry on Thursday, which carried signs mocking the killings of 18 British soldiers in an an IRA bomb attack in 1979.
The bonfire also carried the names of police constable Stephen Carroll and prison officer David Black, both shot dead by dissident republicans, and the late victims campaigner Willie Frazer, who died in June after a battle with cancer.
