Moygashel bonfire: Leo Varadkar picture investigated by PSNI

The bonfire was set alight on Saturday

The placing of a picture of Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar and an Irish flag on a loyalist bonfire in County Tyrone is being investigated as a hate crime by the PSNI.

The bonfire was set alight in Moygashel on Saturday night.

Police said they had received a report in relation to material placed on the bonfire in the Main Road area.

The burning of the flag and poster has been condemned by politicians in Northern Ireland.

A boat had also been placed on the bonfire, with a banner reading "Good Friday Agreement? That ship has sailed".

There was also a mock copy of the 1998 agreement across which the words "null and void" were printed.

Mr Varadkar said he saw the image and did not believe it was reflective of the majority of the unionist community in Northern Ireland.

He said the action of a small minority of people would not distract the Irish government from their main mission of getting the Good Friday Agreement working again, Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson tweeted that "burning the flag of our neighbouring state and a poster of the head of government of that state is disrespectful and wrong".

"It is not culture," he added.

'Childish'

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie tweeted that it was "not acceptable, it is childish and promotes hate".

"Again the many are let down by a few," he said.

DUP MP for Upper Bann Carla Lockhart told BBC Northern Ireland's Sunday Politics that she did not want to see bonfires with "effigies or flags on them".

"I want to see bonfires that represent the historic nature of them when they were lit to welcome King William to Northern Ireland."

Bonfires are traditionally lit in unionist areas on 11 July to kick off Twelfth of July events, which mark the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Protestant William of Orange defeated Catholic King James II.

Bonfires were lit to welcome - and guide - William of Orange.

Fine Gael TD and former Irish Justice Minister, Charlie Flanagan, said the burning of a flag was "gratuitously offensive and unacceptable".

"Such naked sectarianism has no place on the challenging path to peace, stability & reconciliation & must be condemned by all democrats," he added.