Sinn Féin MLA and policing board member Martina Anderson is scheduled to travel to Belgium next month as part of a cross-community peace initiative marking the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Messines.
Ms Anderson and South Down Sinn Féin MLA Willie Clarke will participate in a series of events marking the anniversary of the battle in which the 16th Irish and 36th Ulster divisions fought together for the first time. A number of unionists and Irish Government representatives will also attend.
Ms Anderson said that Messines, where an Irish peace tower was erected in 1998, was "clearly an important event for others in the community" and that Sinn Fein's participation was important for the party's "unionist outreach". She said one of her mother's uncles fought at the battle.
"As a republican I would have a particular view of the events at Messines. People fought for many different reasons - and from the nationalist community too for Home Rule, and others to put bread on the table. But others believed it was the right thing to do," said Ms Anderson.
On Tuesday next Sinn Féin will launch its "Charter for Unionist Engagement" at Stormont with Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness the main speaker.
"The development of our unionist engagement is about trying to build up a better understanding of people from the different parts of our community and their experiences," said Ms Anderson. "It is a two-way street and a slow process but there is significant engagement between ourselves and people right throughout the Protestant, unionist, loyalist community."
Her announcement of the visit drew a jaundiced response from DUP Assembly member Sammy Wilson, who said that before launching its unionist outreach Sinn Féin should act to stop attacks on unionist culture, property and people.
Mr Wilson and Ulster Unionist MLA Tom Elliott said that unionists in Border areas and in small towns were subjected to intimidation and that Protestant property had been vandalised.
Mr Wilson, referring to parading in particular, said Sinn Féin should show "some respect for unionist culture instead of deliberately organising attempts to stamp out that culture across Northern Ireland".
Meanwhile, Daithi McKay, Sinn Féin MLA for North Antrim, said the impending closure of a Catholic school in Harryville in Ballymena was as a result of sectarianism and was an "indictment on society".
St Mary's Primary School in Harryville, the location for loyalist pickets on the local Catholic church in the 1990s, had more than 300 pupils in the 1970s but is closing this summer with less than 50 on its register.
School principal Martin Kearney said St Mary's had been subjected to at least 10 major arson attacks in his 33 years at the school, at least half of them coming in the past 10 years or so, all of which seriously affected enrolment.
"Everyone knows the problems that Ballymena has in regard to sectarianism, both past and present, but the fact that this has spilled over into attacks on primary schools and indeed churches is a true indictment on society," said Mr McKay.
"There remains an onus on all political parties in North Antrim to use their influence to combat sectarianism within the community. If sectarianism is not tackled with the urgency that is required then the reality is that these kinds of attacks will continue to take place," he added.
Local Alliance representative Jayne Dunlop said the closure would be a "devastating blow" to the community.
