Prince Charles events to be attended by Sinn Fein

Sinn Fein is to be represented at events during Prince Charles's four-day visit to Ireland this week, the party's president Gerry Adams has said.

Mr Adams said the move was intended to be part of a "healing process".

The prince will visit the area where the IRA murdered his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, in County Sligo.

He and the Duchess of Cornwall have engagements north and south of the Irish border from 19-22 May, on the theme of peace and reconciliation.

Mr Adams has not said which events Sinn Fein will be represented at.

The move comes after the Queen made a state visit to the Irish Republic in 2011 and then visited Belfast in 2012, where she shook hands with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander.

'Unresolved injustices'

When Prince Charles's visit was announced, Mr Adams had said it should be "an opportunity to promote reconciliation and build on the good work done by Martin McGuinness and the English Queen".

He said: "Prince Charles is the colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment. A regiment of the British army that has been responsible for the killing of many Irish citizens including in Derry, Ballymurphy, Springhill and other communities across the north.

"But he also has been bereaved by the actions of republicans.

"Thankfully the conflict is over. But there remain unresolved injustices. These must be rectified and a healing process developed.

"There is a responsibility on us all to promote reconciliation and seek to promote healing."

Lord Louis Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA on 27 August 1979

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will visit Mullaghmore Harbour, County Sligo

The prince first visited the Republic of Ireland in 1995, and again in 2002, but this is the first official joint visit there with his wife.

He and the duchess will meet members of the community in Mullaghmore, which is where Lord Mountbatten was killed in an IRA bomb attack on his boat in 1979.

They will also attend a service of peace and reconciliation at St Columba's Church, in Drumcliffe, County Sligo, and when they travel north of the border on the second half of their trip, they will visit Northern Ireland's oldest peace and reconciliation centre at Corrymeela, County Antrim.

The Royal couple's itinerary also includes visits to a number of cultural and historical sites, including the County Sligo grave of Irish Nobel Prize-winning poet, William Butler Yeats, and the Burren in County Clare.

In Galway, they are due to attend a reception at the National University of Ireland, where a celebration of Irish culture, including crafts, dancing and music, will be staged.