Unionists have expressed their anger at plans by Sinn Féin to hold a celebration at Parliament Buildings in Stormont next month to honour Mairead Farrell.
Ms Farrell was one of three unarmed IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar 20 years ago.
Danny Kennedy, Ulster Unionist Deputy leader, said a proposal by Sinn Féin West Belfast Assembly member Jennifer McCann to hold a function in the Long Gallery was 'grotesque and completely unacceptable'.
Mr Kennedy, the chairman of the Committee for the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, has written to the Stormont events office seeking to have the event blocked.
He said the event on 7 March had cynically been booked as a celebration of International Women's Day.
Mr Kennedy said he believed it represented an abuse of privilege on behalf of any Assembly member to use the surroundings of public buildings for such a controversial purpose.
He said to promote the event in the name of International Women's Day was 'entirely inappropriate and misleading and should not be allowed'.
His view was echoed by DUP MLA Nelson McCausland. He said it was ludicrous for Jennifer McCann to claim that such an event had anything to do with International Women's Day.
Sinn Féin Assembly member for West Belfast Jennifer McCann later defended her plans and said she did not intend to offend unionists.
'I'm not asking anyone to agree with what I am doing, but I am saying they should respect it. Stormont is a shared space and that's the way it has to be seen,' she said.
