Senior republican Brian Keenan was the main attraction at the Rosslea Martyrs Annual Tour, which took in several monuments marking the deaths of IRA volunteers.

    Unionists insisted the commemoration - and the appearance of tricolour flags on former army bases over Easter - were at odds with the spirit of the peace process.

    DUP Councillor Bert Johnston said events had been alarming for people who already felt threatened by Irish republicans.

    “I think it is somewhat ironic that at a time when David Trimble is trying to get a deal with Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein, the friends of Mr Adams are continuing to do what they know best - harass and intimidate innocent people in and around the Fermanagh border,” he said.

    “It shows republicans have not and will not change.”

    The tour began in the graveyard, commemorating four men who had been executed in 1797, Lisnaskea republican Sean Lynch explained.

    Around 250 people continued to the place where volunteer Tony Ahern was killed in a premature explosion in 1972.

    Next they visited a number of spots, including the centre of Rosslea, to remember IRA volunteers killed in the 1950s.

    Finally the group gathered near where Seamus McElwaine was killed in an SAS ambush between Rosslea and Donagh. At each point, flowers were laid and songs and poetry performed.

    The commemoration of Seamus McElwaine’s death was of particular interest to Mr Lynch.

    “I was actually arrested and injured the time he was killed,” he explained.

    “Seamus McElwaine is going to be viewed differently by different people on different sides of the conflict. To republicans, Seamus McElwaine appeared as a freedom fighter: to unionists he was a mass murderer.

    “There was a conflict and we are trying to move out of it. Victims on all sides have to be acknowledged - we can’t have a hierarchy of victims.

    “In relation to the road being blocked, where Seamus McElwaine died was on a man’s land and a decision was taken not to go onto that land. “Republicans commemorated on the main road and it was only for a couple of minutes.”

    Mr Lynch said everyone had a right to commemorate their dead and this had been recognised by Alex Maskey in commemorating those who died in the Second World War.

    “They had the right to commemorate their dead, same as republicans have the right to commemorate their dead,” he said.

    However, UUP Councillor Tom Elliott said the erection of tricolours were part of a campaign of provocation against the minority Protestant community.

    “Due to the location of these I assume that this is a claiming of territory by Sinn Fein/IRA,” he said.

    “This threatening behaviour and bully boy tactics used by Republicans is typical of what the Unionist community has had to endure for decades. This is just another form of intimidation, which keeps the local minority community living in fear.”

    Rosslea UUP Councillor Harold Andrews said the commemoration had blocked the main road for half an hour, imprisoning Protestants in their own homes.

    “To commemorate a mass murderer in such a fashion shows the true callous and reprehensible attitudes of republicans towards the victims of IRA terrorism,” he said.

    Gerry Adams had talked recently about the IRA’s resolve to see the closure of the conflict and that any activities undermining the peace process should not be happening, he said.