Michelle O’Neill is to participate in Belfast City Hall’s Remembrance Sunday ceremony – the first time a senior Sinn Fein figure will take part in services in Northern Ireland.

She will lay a laurel wreath at the Cenotaph in Belfast in her official capacity as First Minister, and will be present with DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly.

The Sinn Fein vice-president said her attendance is a demonstration of her determination to fulfil her pledge to be a “First Minister for all”.

Admitting her presence will be uncomfortable for some republicans, she insisted it is nevertheless the “right thing to do”.

placeholder image — First Minister and Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill announced she will be participating in a Remembrance Sunday event at the Cenotaph at Belfast City Hall. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

“Back in February, it was a moment of progress and equality here when I became the first Nationalist, Republican First Minister, and I made very firm pledges at that time that I would represent everybody in society,” she said.

“So when I got this invitation to attend remembrance events this weekend, I thought it was important to take that invitation up.

“Because that for me is the fulfilment of my commitment to those people out there from a British and Unionist identity, who hold this important Remembrance Day very carefully to their own heart.

“So, for me, this is about acknowledgement of loss, but it’s also about being respectful to all those people out there and fulfilling my commitment to be First Minister for all.”

Her party’s approach to remembrance events linked to the British armed forces has gradually shifted since the end of the Troubles, beginning in 2002 when Sinn Fein’s then-Lord Mayor of Belfast, Alex Maskey, laid a laurel wreath at the City Hall Cenotaph to mark the July anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

The party has gone on to participate in armistice ceremonies in Belfast, while Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald and Ms O’Neill have both attended a church service in Dublin to mark Remembrance Sunday.

But until now its leadership has refused to participate in Remembrance Sunday ceremonies in Northern Ireland, citing concerns about British military trappings on show.

Remembrance Sunday also holds an added significance in the context of the Troubles, due to the IRA’s notorious bomb attack in Enniskillen in 1987.

The no-warning blast at the town’s war memorial, as crowds gathered for the annual ceremony, killed 11 people – with a twelfth victim dying years later, having never woken from a coma.

Asked about how IRA victims may respond to her attendance on Sunday, Ms O’Neill said: “I’ve said it now on a few occasions that I regret every single loss of life.

"There’s nothing poetic or romantic about war. War is horrible.

"People lost loved ones, and for this weekend in particular, I think it’s important, because this is, for me, about an acknowledgement of all loss.”

Sinn Fein has been reeling from a series of recent controversies in recent weeks, though Ms O’Neill denied her announcement is an attempt to shift focus away from the party’s internal difficulties.

“I’m going to have no truck with that [suggestion],” she said.

“We can’t escape the fact the past number of weeks have been difficult for the party, and I’ve publicly stated all of that in terms of the public record.

“But this is not about that. This is about me fulfilling my commitment to be First Minister for all.”