O'Neill to attend Remembrance Sunday event for first time

First Minister Michelle O'Neill is to become the first senior Sinn Féin figure to take part in an official Remembrance Sunday ceremony later.

O'Neill has confirmed she has accepted an invitation and will lay a laurel wreath at the Cenotaph at Belfast City Hall on Sunday in her role as first minister.

Several Sinn Féin politicians have laid wreaths in previous years, but she will be the first to stay for the main Remembrance Sunday ceremony.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn will attend a service in Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, while junior Northern Ireland Office minister Fleur Anderson will be at the the service in Belfast.

Belfast's ceremony will begin at 11:00 GMT and will include Lord Mayor Micky Murray laying a wreath at the Cenotaph on behalf of the citizens of Belfast.

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Simon Harris will not attend a service this year, but Irish cabinet minister Heather Humphreys will be in Enniskillen.

Irish President Michael D Higgins will attend at the annual service at St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

Justice Minister Naomi Long unveiled a commemorative ceramic Poppy Wreath at the the Northern Ireland Prison Service annual remembrance ceremony on Friday.

The memorial service to remember 32 officers who lost their lives in the course of duty was held at Hydebank Wood Memorial Garden.

The ceramic wreath, with the King's insignia at the centre, was hand-made by prisoners, a number of whom are ex-servicemen.

Designed by Lucy Turner, from Prison Arts Foundation, the poppy wreath was a collaborative piece of work with armed forces charity SSAFA, Belfast Met and the Prison Service.

More than 20 years have passed since Alex Maskey became the first Sinn Féin lord mayor to pay his respects to the war dead at the Cenotaph.

On 1 July 2002 he laid a laurel wreath at the monument two hours ahead of the main council ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

Maskey described his gesture as a "major step for republicans and nationalists on this island".

He did not attend the main ceremony that year, refusing to take part in what he called a "military commemoration" of the World War One battle.

Since then, Sinn Féin politicians have always declined to attend Cenotaph wreath laying ceremonies in any official capacity.

In the years that have passed, there have been other firsts and many other gestures in a bid to promote reconciliation and good relations.

In 2016 Martin McGuinness travelled to France and Belgium as part of a two-day trip to World War One battlefields.

He laid wreaths at the sites where the Somme and the Battle of Messines took place a century earlier.

In July 2022 O'Neill laid a laurel wreath at the Belfast Cenotaph to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

However, she declined to be drawn on why she did not attend the wider Somme commemoration event at the same venue that year.