A councillor has branded republicans who "intimidated" a Donegal hotel into cancelling a royal wedding-themed afternoon-tea event on Saturday as "thugs".

The Inishowen Gateway Hotel in Buncrana had advertised the event to coincide with the nuptials of Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

The hotel had launched a Facebook event page to garner interest.

However, yesterday morning staff were inundated with phone calls from republicans angry over the event and by late afternoon the event had been taken down from the hotel's Facebook page.

A spokesperson for the hotel apologised for "any offence caused".

"The event planned for Saturday, May 19, will no longer be taking place and we would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any offence caused," they said in a statement.

"As one of Donegal's most recognised hotels, we are committed to ensuring we offer our guests a quality and memorable experience."

However, Derry DUP councillor David Ramsey said the "intimidation by thugs" directed towards the hotel was "disgusting".

"The royal wedding is the largest worldwide event," he said. "Any hotel would see that as a marketing opportunity.

"Because it doesn't matter what race or creed you are, there will be millions of people watching the wedding who are not from the unionist background. Every walk of life will be watching and many in the Republic of Ireland will be looking at it, as well as people in Northern Ireland. People love weddings," he said.

"For thugs to take it upon themselves to intimidate someone doing their job, marketing a wedding that the whole world will be interested in, is absolutely disgusting.

"It doesn't surprise me," said Mr Ramsey, adding there were people who don't seem to want to live with unionists, "or want anything to do with us".

Irish Independent