A titled landowner has spoken out after a planned visit to a Catholic school in Northern Ireland was postponed following criticism from Sinn Fein.

The Duchess of Abercorn had been invited to speak to teachers and pupils at St Mary's School in Pomeroy, County Tyrone.

She was to talk about her involvement with the Pushkin Award, a literary competition for school children throughout Ireland in honour of the Russian poet. It has been running for 12 years.

However, Sinn Fein called on the school principal to withdraw the invitation, after some parents objected to what they saw as the duchess' connections with the Royal family.

But the duchess, who lives in Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, said she was not a member of the British Royal Family and anyone who believed she was had been "misinformed".

She said if a school wished to compete for the Pushkin Prize, the organisers were happy to meet them, because the whole point of the award was to recognise creativity.

"We would only go to schools that would like to have us and communities who would welcome us.

"So I think on this occasion I would leave the whole thing to the school and the community to work out if they want it or not."

The duchess, who is a distant relation of Pushkin, said this was the first time she had encountered such opposition over a school visit.

The Minister for Education, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, responding to the issue of school visits said: "The question of who visits a particular school is a matter for the school principal and the chairman of the board of governors.

"That is the well-established departmental policy and will continue to be so."

"Where there is disagreement about a visit I would hope that it would be settled amicably between the people who are directly involved.

"I have already talked to the principal of St Mary's, Pomeroy, and I am hopeful that this matter can be resolved satisfactorily."

Concerned parents

Earlier, Sinn Fein councillor Finbar Conway said he had been contacted by "concerned parents who were worried that a member of the British monarchy would be in a school where she was not welcome".

"The people of Pomeroy are proud Irish people and don't feel any allegiance to the British symbols or British monarchy.

"No matter how you dress the duchess up, she has close links with royalty, is still a member of the Royal family.

But the Stormont government's Junior Minister for Equality Denis Haughey of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, said the whole thing was "absurd" and is to take the matter up with Education Minister Martin McGuinness.

"The Duchess of Abercorn is only one of a number of people who are behind the project and in her capacity as one of the organisers of this project, the duchess has visited schools all over Ireland."

"Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams know this kind of activity is wrong, but they haven't the guts to take on their local activists and rein them in and call them off. It's about time they did. I'll be taking this matter up with them."

A spokesman for the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) also criticised Sinn Fein.

Regional official Tom McKee said it was a "totally unjustified attempt by a political party to interfere in the operation of a school".

It is understood the duchess will now meet parents on neutral ground and the school still intends the visit to go ahead at a later date.

The headmaster of the school, Michael Harvey, said he did not wish to comment on the matter.