DUP says President Higgins' decision to not attend centenary service has ‘set back north-south relations’

The leaders of the Church of Ireland, Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist churches said the service was to “explore the opportunity to deepen the work of reconciliation in a context of respectful dialogue”.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson has accused President Michael D Higgins of ‘setting back north-south relations’ by declining to attend a church service to mark the centenary of Northern Ireland. Picture: Peter Morrison/PA

President Michael D Higgins’ decision not to attend a centenary church service in Armagh next month has “set back north-south relations” in Ireland, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has claimed.

The prayer service has been organised by the four main churches in Northern Ireland to mark the centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland.