Michael D Higgins insists he is President of Ireland, refuses to commemorate partition

The President said he decided it would be "inappropriate to attend".

President Higgins said of the event's title: "It isn't a neutral statement politically.

"Let's be clear...that's why doing commemorations is difficult."

He didn't give them a chance to amend the title; he never told them of any problem he had with the title.

The government are sending a representative to the event. He has told so many lies and is sowing division. One thing that people forget is that he is a political extremist. He is an extreme far left ideologue. He has displayed Trump-like behavior in the past few days, from being offended by a statement from the DUP, to lying about the invite and then attacking former Prime Minister Bruton.

It would have been interesting to see if Mary McAleese would have gotten an invite from an event organised by the RC Hierarchy.

On the actual event,it will be interesting to see what the 'reflecting' will be. The invite says that political leaders will be invited (with nationalists refusing invitation). Those that not make it a political event?

The Belfast Telegraph reported that Sinn Féin and the SDLP are "boycotting" it.

I don't think so. The Irish RC church has long since lost any right to speak for any Irish person and have been on the wrong side of just about every major development for years. And the same with this this IMO. Literally no nationalist/republican on either side of the border has any wish to mark the NI centenary. And in terms of NI, Sinn Féin and SDLP speak for the nationalist community as their elected representatives, not these appointed stooges of the foreign imperialist power in Rome.

IMO he was right to steer clear in 2016 and he's right to steer clear now.

Its part of a wider programme of events marking 100yrs of NI. https://ourstoryinthemaking.com/

Its basically a sales pitch for NI going forward. They should have resisted the temptation to constantly refer to 100yrs and thus partition and thus the past in general.

They should partition the partition, so they can keep their majority. Worked so well the last time.

That's the most important part about this. The government have been trying to create an environment where a UI is possible. He has helped damage that process. He obviously never had the slightest intention of attending, given that he never engaged with the organizers. The amount of hatred directed at Unionists on here has surprised me.

They don't. Our football team is called Ireland as the badge on our jerseys clearly shows.

The adoption of the distinction in international soccer was purely because of the exceptional nature of the administration of the sport on this island, which is to say, most if not all other international sports are competed for on an all-island basis or on the basis of an all-island body administering them; Rugby, Hockey, Athletics, Golf, Boxing, Motorsport, Swimming and so on.

It should also be noted that the Irish Football Association in the 6 Counties is the original body and that the FAI is the 'breakaway' of a century ago, when a period of discord in relation to the running of association football took place, necessitating a distinction to be made.

The Republic of Ireland distinction for the football team (it's not just a distinction, it's the official team name) was made by FIFA (not the FAI) in 1953 to settle a 30 year dispute and distinguish between the two Irish football teams - the FAI one and the IFA one, the latter becoming the Northern Ireland football team.