SINN Féin vice president Michelle O'Neill has urged people to be civil in public discourse following an incident in which a woman chanted a pro-IRA slogan during an encounter with Dame Arlene Foster.
Ms O'Neill reacted following comments from former DUP leader Dame Arlene suggesting incidents like this had become normalised because republican leaders said there was no alternative to past IRA violence.
The footage from the Local Women Business Awards in Belfast emerged on social media at the weekend,
In the video, a woman poses for a selfie with the former Northern Ireland first minister before starting to chant "Up the Ra", a pro-IRA lyric from the Celtic Symphony by The Wolfe Tones.
Mrs Foster's father, a reserve police officer, survived after being shot in the head by the IRA in 1979, and she was a teenager when a school bus she was travelling on was targeted in an IRA bomb attack in 1988.
In an interview with GB News, Dame Arlene said such incidents had "become normalised because republican leaders...said over the summer that there was no alternative to killing people during the Troubles".
“So then young people...think it's normal and think that the IRA are some good guys, whereas in actual fact, they went around in the dead of night, sticking car bombs under people's cars, and coming to people's homes to murder them.”
Asked if the incident was encouraged by her previous comments about the IRA, she said: "Well of course there are different narratives of the past and I think we all have to be sensitive to that. But I also think that in political leadership your job is to provide leadership to steer the course and to ensure that we encourage maturity, civility in our public discourse and everything we do and say."
During the interview, Dame Arlene also spoke of the moment her father was nearly killed by the IRA.
“Thankfully, my father survived the murder attempt on his life..., something I remember very well, because I was there at the time, I was eight years of age in our home, when my father came in with blood coming from his head.
“But as I say, he survived. And we're always very thankful that he did. But then…when I was going to school, aged 16, I was aged 17, when I was blown up in a school bus simply because our bus driver was a part time member of the security forces."
She continued: “This lady comes up to me and shouts ‘ooh, ah, up the RA’ as if it's some culturally cool thing to do. It's not. And the worry for me, is that, first of all, it's so disappointing that a young person should think that that's acceptable in society.”
She also repeated an invitation for the young woman involved to visit a graveyard in Co Fermanagh to see how many lives the IRA had impacted.
When asked about the incident meanwhile Ms O'Neill said: "We all have to be careful, sensitive, mature and civil in all of our public discourse. In everything we say because things do have implications and impact on people.
Referring to Dame Arlene's comments about republican leaders normalising such incidents, Ms O'Neill said: "There are different narratives of the past and we all have to be sensitive to that but I also think in political leadership your job is to steer the course and to ensure we encourage civility in our public discourse in everything we do and say."
