Alliance Party leader Naomi Long rejects Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald's distinction between IRA and gangland violence

Ms McDonald said this week that she was "profoundly shocked" to learn that a former Dublin Sinn Fein councillor Jonathan Dowdall was involved in criminality.

Last month, Mr Dowdall was sentenced to four years in prison for facilitating the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in Dublin 2016.

Ms McDonald said that Mr Dowdall and members of the Provisional IRA were not comparable.

"The things that happened in the course of a very long political conflict - which, thank God, is now long over, we've had 25 years of peace - there is no comparison between that and the kind of challenge, and it is an ongoing challenge, to our society between this and the so-called gangland crime epidemic poses," she told Newstalk.

A range of IRA victims later spoke out to reject Ms McDonald's comments.

But now Alliance leader Naomi Long has taken a stand on social media to challenge the Sinn Fein President's comments.

"As somebody who has seen and continues to see at first hand the damage, the corrosive damage, that so-called paramilitarism has caused to communities, there absolutely is a comparison," she said. "Suggesting otherwise is denying the lived experience of victims."

The vast majority of the 45 responses to her tweet defended the Sinn Fein President and questioned Ms Long on her track record as Justice Minister against loyalists.

A common theme was suggesting that the current UDA threats to a pensioner in Carrickfergus should be on her agenda instead of Ms McDonald. The first such comment also suggested she had not even read what Ms McDonald had said.

Ms Long replied: "I tweeted about Carrickfergus before I tweeted about this. I read her comments. And I decide what's on my agenda, no-one else.

"All terrorism and terrorist apologism bothers me, and I speak out consistently irrespective of the source."Another McDonald defender said that she meant that, unlike the IRA, Dublin crime gangs or the UDA would not "hunger strike to the death for their BMW and Turkey [cosmetically enhanced] teeth".

Ms Long replied: "Well, she has a point there, but those on the receiving end of the violence and intimidation in communities probably see little difference."

The Alliance leader also warned of the dangers of praising past terrorist murders.

"Creating a narrative that past violence was different or more acceptable creates the conditions in which more young people can be groomed into violence by people justifying their current violence. That is high risk and one we should all seek to avoid."One tweeter asked her why are "British paramilitary terrorists still tolerated by Unionism" to which she responded that she had no idea. She added: "they certainly aren't tolerated by most unionist people, who want them to get off the back of the community.” This is challenging for the PSNI, she said, but she strengthened the laws on unexplained wealth to assist.

Ms Long further tweeted: "Unfortunately, arguing that paramilitary violence in the past is acceptable, unavoidable, or worse heroic, perpetuates a narrative that allows young people to get caught up in such illegal activity today."

Sinn Fein was invited to comment.