Sinn Féin was accused today of trying to "rewrite history" with the recreation of a famous civil rights march in Northern Ireland.
Fine Gael TD Austin Currie castigated the party for staging a march on Saturday marking the 35th anniversary of a famous Catholic march in Co Tyrone.
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The weekend march between Dungannon and Coalisland, which was attended by more than 500 people, was organised to highlight the cancellation of Assembly Elections in Northern Ireland in May.
Mr Currie, who was a founder member of the SDLP, said parallels could not be drawn between republicans who had links with terrorism and the non-violent civil rights movement.
He told BBC Radio Ulster today: "I have to say for an organisation like Sinn Féin, linked as it is to a paramilitary organisation which has been responsible for over 2,000 dead, to seek to draw parallels with the civil rights movement is in my opinion rank hypocrisy, opportunism and an attempt to rewrite history."
However, Sinn Féin councillor Mr Francie Molloy claimed the issue of people being allowed to "exercise their democratic right to vote" was still as relevant in Northern Ireland today as it was 35 years ago following the cancellation in May of Assembly election by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"If we go back through history, what we were campaigning for then was 'one man, one vote'. Now we find that even though we have the right to vote, we are being denied the right to exercise it by Tony Blair," he claimed.
The march between Coalisland and Dungannon in 1968 by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was a landmark event in the province.
The association campaigned for one man, one vote, an end to discrimination against Catholics by public authorities, an end to gerrymandering of council areas in favour of unionists and a fairer allocation of public housing.
It also produced a new generation of nationalist leaders such as Mr John Hume, Mr Gerry Fitt and Mr Currie who were inspired by the American civil rights movement and its leader the Rev Martin Luther King's message of tolerance and non-violence.