JUSTICE minister David Ford has said he will not attend an Easter Rising event in the Republic as he is uncomfortable with commemorating "those who engaged in violence".
The Alliance leader said dissident republicans who murdered policemen and prison officers in recent years would claim to be the "inheritors" of the 1916 rebels.
Mr Ford said he had written to Taoiseach Enda Kenny to explain his reasons for declining the invitation to the government-organised event.
But the minister said he plans to attend other events that mark the centenary in a more reflective way.
"My problem is, the people who murdered Adrian Ismay, the people who murdered David Black, the people who murdered Ronan Kerr, the people who murdered two Garda officers, would all claim to be the direct inheritors of Easter 1916," he said.
"I cannot associate myself with that, as minister of justice."
Speaking yesterday Mr Ford said he understood why the historical event was being reflected upon a century later.
But he said that he would not attend any "celebration" of an armed insurrection, or one that did not fully examine the "totality of suffering".
The Dublin rebellion against British rule began on Easter Monday on April 24, 1916. A total of 485 people died, just over half of them civilians.
The rising was quickly defeated by British troops, but is still seen as a significant step in the creation of an independent state.
Mr Ford said he was "uncomfortable" about the state "marking the efforts of those who engaged in violence", and said there were other means of achieving independence.
The Home Rule movement was supported by most Irish nationalists before the British began executing Rising leaders.
"There is a real difficulty if the state is putting a very significant part of its effort into marking the efforts of those who engaged in violence, when there was a democratic way available," he said.
The justice minister also said he agreed with the north's Attorney General John Larkin, who has described the Rising as "profoundly wrong" and lacking "any democratic or constitutional legitimacy".
"Until the point when the British general ordered executions, I think all the evidence was that it was regarded as undemocratic by the great majority of Irish people, whatever part of the island they came from, whether they were nationalists or unionists," he said.
Earlier this year First Minister Arlene Foster had said she would not attend any centenary commemorations of the "very violent" rebellion against British rule in Ireland.
But last month the DUP leader attended a Church of Ireland event in Dublin that debated the Rising.
She said it was "not a commemoration" but a "more considered discussion" about 1916.
