Unionists today failed in their attempt to remove lilies commemorating the 1916 Rising from being displayed in Stormont.
A DUP motion to stop the flowers being shown over the holiday period received majority backing during a debate in the Assembly.
But the bid did not receive the required cross-community support after nationalist MLAs voted against it.
DUP Assembly member Mr Jim Wells had brought his colleagues back to Stormont from their Easter holidays to try to overturn the decision taken last week.
He said the display was being done to honour the memory of 300 IRA members "killed in action" since 1968.
"For the first time ever in the history of the United Kingdom a government building will be used to display symbols which honour IRA terrorists," he said.
Sinn Féin had originally tried to have lilies sold at Stormont to raise money for the National Graves Association (NGA), which maintains nationalist memorials.
Mr Wells criticised the NGA. He claimed when the Assembly Commission investigated the organisation it had no phone number, was not a registered charity and had not submitted tax returns.
Sinn Féin's Ms Dara O'Hagan insisted the Easter lily was a cherished symbol within republican and nationalist traditions of those who have died fighting for Irish freedom and called for equality for her views.
She said: "I don't expect any unionists to agree with that, but what I do expect is that they allow me to choose the symbol that I want to represent me. Do not tell me which symbol should represent me."
Before the debate the deputy Alliance Party leader Mr Seamus Close said it was "outrageous" the DUP had managed to force a special meeting of the Assembly today.
Saying he would not be attending today's debate, he said it demeaned the Assembly, politic and politicians.
"We have had patients lying on hospital trolleys and yet the Assembly was not recalled. We have had murders, violent beatings, high levels of road deaths - numerous, more important, reasons to recall Stormont and it was not recalled."
PA