Many of the 1916 Rising leaders were egotists “who were doing it to bring glory on themselves”, the North’s First Minister Arlene Foster has said in a sharp disagreement with the sentiments expressed by President Michael D Higgins on Easter Monday.

Mr Higgins described the leaders as “advanced thinkers, selfless women and men, who took all the risks to ensure that the children of Ireland would, in the future, live in freedom and access their fair share of Ireland’s prosperity”.