TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said he’s not reconsidering launching a Belfast summer festival after criticism from Northern Ireland politicians that it was inappropriate.

Austin Stack, (the son of murdered prison officer Brian Stack) Maria Cahill (who said she was abused by a member of the Republican movement, and is a former Labour senator) and a number of unionist politicians have criticised the Taoiseach’s decision, saying that it wasn’t the correct use of his influence as Taoiseach to launch the festival, which is 30 years old this year.

UUP MLA Doug Beattie said on Twitter that two events – one about the Maze Prison escape of 1983 in which a prison officer was killed, and another about what the event labels as the ‘guerilla war’ in the North – would be discussions about murder.

If you are launching Féile an Phobail [Leo Varadkar] it is hard not to see you endorsing these events. A great escape = murder of a prison officer. A guerilla war = murder of men, women & children. Use your influence – promotion of terrorism is wrong.

Responding to those criticisms today, Leo Varadkar said that he was looking forward to his sixth visit to Northern Ireland as Taoiseach, and he wasn’t considering cancelling.

“There are a number of different parts of the [visit] tomorrow which talk to both communities. I’ll be visiting the Orange Order Museum and also I’ll be launching the Féile an Phobail festival in Belfast.

It is a community festival – [DUP leader] Arlene Foster has spoken at it in the past, and I believe the headline act this year is Olly Murs. I don’t think anyone could accuse him of being a die hard republican.

Olly Murs is a 34-year-old English singer-songwriter who appeared on The X Factor talent show in 2009.

“It is very much a community festival, it’s been running in Belfast for decades now during very dark periods when Belfast was a very difficult city to live in, it was something that lifted the spirits of the community in Belfast and I’m very happy to be associated with it.”

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald defended the Taoiseach’s decision to attend the launch of the festival.

She told reporters “it is right the Taoiseach is there to launch the clár for it on its 30th anniversary”.

McDonald said people who are criticising Leo Varadkar for attending “need to be a bit more thoughtful when they react to initiatives like this. It is a good thing that the Taoiseach is visiting Belfast. It is a good thing that he would support a community event and whatever political differences people might have or whatever points they might make, that’s fine, make them, but don’t have a go at a very fine festival,” he said.

Féile an Phobail was established in 1988 in response to the conflict in Northern Ireland, putting an emphasis on cultural events and entertainment. It’s based in West Belfast and provides a number of events related to arts, culture and the community.

On the festival’s website, it states one of its aims as being “to continue to promote social inclusion and the celebration of diversity by providing opportunities for the expression of Irish culture in all its forms, encouraging interchange with other cultures and communities through traditional and modern forms of artistic expression”.