Updated, 15.05

SINN FÉIN has withdrawn from sale a t-shirt depicting people celebrating at the grave of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, after coming under fire from unionist politicians condemning the shirt.

The Irish News (subscription required) reports that the t-shirt, which shows a group of silhouetted figures throwing a party beside Thatcher’s headstone, was taken down from the Sinn Féin Online Store last night.

The t-shirt, pictured, includes a headstone  reading ‘Margaret Thatcher: Tyrant and Murderer’, while the group partying are behind a sign which reads: ‘Dancers please form an orderly queue’.

Unionist politicians told the newspaper’s Marie Louise McCrory that the t-shirt was “grossly offensive” and “disgusting”.

Though all references to the t-shirt have been removed from the website, a cached version still available through Google shows that the t-shirt was accompanied by the caption:

It can’t be long now! Get ready for the big day

Thatcher is known to be ill and has withdrawn from many public appearances in recent years. Her daughter has spoken about how her memory has failed due to a series of small strokes.

The ‘Iron Lady’, now 85, is a hate figure among republican circles since her handling of the IRA hunger strikers of 1981, when Thatcher refused to offer political concessions to republican inmates at Long Kesh prison in Belfast.

A Sinn Féin spokesperson told the Irish News that the bookshop was “separate” from the main party, but when TheJournal.ie called the shop this morning for comment it was referred to the party headquarters.

The party this afternoon confirmed it had removed the t-shirt from its online store, and from its physical shop on Parnell Square in Dublin, “following a complaint”.