Coveney says no clear advice given to President about NI religious service invitation

President Michael D Higgins “makes his own decisions”, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said.

Mr Coveney was questioned about Mr Higgins’s decision to decline an invitation to a religious service in Northern Ireland next month which will be attended by the queen.

The controversy has threatened to overshadow Mr Higgins’s audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Friday.

But Mr Higgins has stood over his decision to decline the invitation on the grounds that the event is political in nature and commemorates the “centenary of the partition of Ireland”.

The President broke his silence on the controversy on Thursday night and also strongly denied any suggestion of a snub on Queen Elizabeth, who is due to attend the service in Co Armagh in October.

Mr Coveney is in Belfast to meet the North’s political parties and later on Friday will take part in a panel discussion organised by the Presbyterian Church to mark the centenary of partition and the formation of Northern Ireland at Union Theological College.

“We didn’t give any clear advice to the President in relation to this particular event ,” Mr Coveney said, referring to the Armagh event.

“There was consultation between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Áras on this issue and on many other issues but I can assure you President Higgins is the kind of person who makes his own decisions.”

Earlier, former taoiseach John Bruton said Mr Higgins should attend the event and appeared not to have sought the advice of the Government as “he is obliged to do under the Constitution”.

Mr Bruton told BBC Radio Ulster on Friday morning: “If he had fulfilled his obligation under the Constitution, which is to take the advice of the Irish Government on this matter, they would have advised him that he ought to go.

“He seems to have some concern that it is in some way taking note of the existence of Northern Ireland as a separate entity.

“But the reality is that the Irish people in the Good Friday Agreement, which they voted on and approved in a referendum, accept the present wishes of the people of Northern Ireland to maintain the union, until that is changed.

“So, in accepting an invitation to an event which is simply marking the existence of Northern Ireland for 100 years, the President would have been acting in accordance with the wishes of the Irish people.”

Mr Bruton said “it appears he didn’t seek the advice of the Government which he is obliged to do under the Constitution.”

However, historian Diarmaid Ferriter said Mr Bruton was misreading the relevant Constitutional article, when he appeared on the Today with Claire Byrne programme. He also said Mr Higgins’ move was “not a snub” to the queen.

Mr Bruton claimed there was an unfortunate tradition in and around Northern Ireland of “going out of your way to take offence”, adding “some of the explanations the President gave for his declining the invitation involve going out of the way to take offence, in regards to the way he was addressed.”

He said he hoped the Government would send a representative to the event.

The attendance of the Taoiseach or Tánaiste would “remedy some of the harm that has been done”, but the “person who should be there, if the queen is there, is Uachtaráin na hÉireann Michael D Higgins”.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said the President’s attendance or otherwise at events was “entirely a matter for him”.

Meanwhile, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson accused Mr Higgins of being “unfortunately retrograde” in his decision not to attend the event.

On Mr Higgins standing over his decision and rebuking the DUP, Mr Donaldson said he was “very surprised.”

“I thought the President had risen above the politics of all of this and perhaps he had been prevailed upon not to attend this event,” he said.

“But it is evident from what he said that in fact that this is much more than that. He uses language that I think is unfortunately retrograde, he talks about being President of Ireland, not the President of the Republic of Ireland, despite the fact people voted to remove the territorial claim over Northern Ireland and there was recognition in the constitution of the Republic of Ireland of the existence of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.

“I think the language used by the President is not forward-looking. It does not recognise the reality that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.

“It is back to the old days when the President believes that he is President of the whole island, which we all know he is not.”

Mr Donaldson said it was “regrettable” that Mr Higgins was declining an invitation to a service being convened by Ireland’s four main churches which was organised to focus on “hope and reconciliation”.

“I have to say the comments made by President Higgins really are not conducive towards reconciliation,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.

Mr Donaldson said he suspected many people in the Republic “will regret what has happened here”.

“I was disappointed with President Higgins’ remarks about the DUP,” he added.

“It was not just the DUP who asked him to rethink his decision, it was the Alliance party and other unionist parties, who joined in that call. It is not just my party who has raised this as an issue or a concern.”

Mr Donaldson insisted the DUP had sent representatives to “many events that are about promoting reconciliation”, adding that former leader Arlene Foster attended a church service in Dublin around the time of the Easter Rising commemoration.

But he said the “standard” for reconciliation was set by Queen Elizabeth when she visited Ireland in 2011.

“When we think of the boundaries that she crossed, the taboos she broke, when we think of the remarkable way she conducted herself, which set the standard for reconciliation, I think it is truly disappointing that President Higgins, as head of state of the Republic of Ireland, really wasn’t able to step up on this one,” he said.

“I think it is a backward step. It does set us back.”

Mr Donaldson said unionists would be “deeply disappointed” by the President, and that his remarks “tells us a lot about the continuing negative attitude there is towards unionists, our identity, where we stand and indeed the very existence of Northern Ireland itself.”

Mr Donaldson said it was “unfortunate and regrettable” to be “dragged down to this level.

Separately, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church Rev Norman Hamilton said President Higgins’ defence of his decision not to attend the service filled him with “weary sadness”.

“My reaction to President Higgins’ statement overnight was just one of weary sadness, that something that is meant to be a help to reconciliation has now ended up...as a Constitutional argument, in a political row, and that we are having a lot more heat than light on a subject such as reconciliation.”

Reconciliation is “not something you can dip in and out of. You have to stick at it when there are adverse winds blowing against it,” Rev Hamilton told BBC Radio Ulster.

“I am saddened and troubled that something that was meant to be a helpful contribution - and nobody can doubt the integrity of the people organising it - has now turned into this sour, politicised, aggressive commentary,” he added.

Speaking in Rome during a four-day official visit to the Italian capital, Mr Higgins said his problem was with the title of the event, which it was stated would “mark the centenaries of the partition of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland”. He said the title was politicised and made it inappropriate for him as head of State to attend the event.

“What [had started out as] an invitation to a religious service had in fact become a political statement,” he said. “I was also referred to as the President of the Republic of Ireland. I am the President of Ireland.”

In a reference to Queen Elizabeth, he said: “There is no question of any snub intended to anybody. I am not snubbing anyone and I am not part of anyone’s boycott of any other events in Northern Ireland.

“I wish their service well but they understand that I have the right to exercise a discretion as to what I think is appropriate for my attendance.”

In response to DUP politicians who claimed he had snubbed the event, he replied: “It’s a bit much, to be frank with you. I have gone up to Northern Ireland to take part in events.”

“There often has not been a great deal of traffic down from the DUP people who are criticising me now,” he added.

He said he would not be revisiting his decision. “We are past the point now and I think it is unfortunate.”

He said on the day of the event he would be hosting the Statistical and Social Inquiry Association of Ireland at Áras an Uachtaráin.

In 2016 Mr Higgins pulled out of a dinner at Belfast City Hall to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising because he said there was no longer cross-party support for the event and he did not want to become embroiled in “political controversy”.

There were were further calls in Northern Ireland yesterday for the President to reconsider his decision. DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said he had written to Mr Higgins seeking an explanation and had “encouraged President Higgins to change his mind”. He also said it was “difficult not to conclude that there is politics at play here”.

Alliance MP Stephen Farry also said he hoped Mr Higgins would reconsider his decision, as did the Independent group of Senators in the Oireachtas.

However, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood defended Mr Higgins and his record on reconciliation, saying that people “should not read too much into this” and should “take him at his word when he says he can’t be there”.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney is due to attend an event marking the centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland later on Friday.

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