First Minister Michelle O’Neill has backed the Irish president’s decision to highlight the conflict in Gaza during a Holocaust memorial event. But Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly has said the Irish head of state’s comments were “absolutely wrong”.

Emma Little-Pengelly said Michael D Higgins was “absolutely wrong” to raise Gaza in his speech, but Michelle O’Neill said it was “his business” to express his views.

Ireland’s president has been branded “despicable” and accused of spewing “anti-Semitic lies” after he used a Holocaust memorial speech to highlight the plight of Gazans.

Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich has accused the Irish president of "politicising" a Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration in Dublin on Sunday. The event marked 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, and was held to remember victims of the Holocaust.