8 April 2011 Last updated at 11:07 ET

Gerry Adams: Queen's Dublin visit timing 'insensitive'

The Queen will be accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh on the trip

The timing of the Queen's visit to Dublin is "particularly insensitive", Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has said.

Mr Adams said the beginning of the visit on 17 May fell on the anniversary of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan loyalist bombings, in which 33 people were killed.

"It is widely believed that the Dublin and Monaghan bombings were carried out with the involvement of and direction of British military intelligence," he said.

"The British authorities have repeatedly refused to release the files in their possession on this attack.

"Despite an all-party Dail motion, the Irish government has failed to press the British for the release of these files.

"Sinn Fein wants to see the normalisation of relationships between our two nations and republicans have been in the leadership of this process, but that can only be based on mutual respect and equality and on the ending of the partition of Ireland."

Meanwhile, DUP leader Peter Robinson has welcomed the GAA's invitation to the Queen to Croke Park and its prominent role in the funeral of Constable Ronan Kerr.

Mr Robinson said these were developments that would not have been seen 10 or 20 years ago and showed that people were making an effort to get out of their comfort zones and reach out to others.

UUP leader Tom Elliot also welcomed the moves, although he noted that there is still more to be done to achieve a more mutually respectful society, "particularly around the naming of GAA grounds and clubs, who are named after former terrorists".

The SDLP's Conal McDevitt was supportive of the Queen's visit, and particularly of the GAA's invitation.

"I think it's time for us all to understand that shaking the Queen's hand or meeting the Pope isn't going to undermine anyone's identity, isn't going to cause the sky to fall in," he said.

Alliance Party leader David Ford praised the GAA for "moving their organisation into an entirely different place from where it was ten years ago".

"I just want to see a number of other organisations moving the same way," he added.

The Queen will be accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh on a four-day state visit to the Republic of Ireland.

The tour, announced last month, will include a ceremony in Dublin's Garden of Remembrance and a visit to the Irish prime minister at Government Buildings.

The Queen will also make a speech at a state dinner at Dublin Castle.

It is the first state visit to the Irish Republic by a British monarch since independence.