Durkan defends President in Holocaust row

SDLP Leader Mark Durkan sprang to the defence of President Mary McAleese today after she compared the Nazis’ hatred of Jews to those who taught children in Northern Ireland to despise Catholics.

President McAleese stirred unionist anger during a visit to Auschwitz yesterday when she compared the decades of anti-semitism which led to the Nazi atrocities to prejudice against Catholics in Northern Ireland.