Sinn Fein criticised over 1916 medal '˜insult'

The party’s TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh said the medals depict a signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic on one side, but on the reverse have a dedication to “the Irish Free State”.

Produced by a company called the Dublin Mint Office, which is located in a west Dublin business park, the silver-plated “Seven Signatories” medals show a 1921 Anglo Irish Treaty.

Mr Ó Snodaigh called on the company to withdraw the medals, apologise for the “insult and recast them appropriately with the Proclamation on it, 1916 and Poblacht na hÉireann”.

But DUP MP Gregory Campbell said that to accuse others of historical revisionism “must have required an irony by-pass even by Sinn Fein standards”.

He added: “However, they can take time to reflect on that as they charge people £15 per head this weekend to emulate that famous British TV show Strictly Come Dancing as part of their ‘centenary events to commemorate the Easter Rising’.”

TUV South Antrim Assembly candidate Richard Cairns said: “People across both Northern Ireland and the Republic will find it hard to take a Sinn Fein/IRA lecture on ‘highly insulting’ historical revisionism seriously.

“This is the same organisation which continues to propagate the myth that they fought a 30-year war against the British presence in Northern Ireland. The reality was that they slaughtered many and injured countless others simply because of their religion.”