The Northern Ireland Education Minister, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, has said he is hopeful the row over a visit to a Catholic school in county Tyrone can be settled.

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

But the visit by the duchess was cancelled after protests by Sinn Fein.

Mr McGuinness said he had spoken to the school's principal and was hopeful the row could be resolved.

He said: "I am very, very hopeful this can be resolved in an amicable fashion.

"My job as minister is to do my job in a fair minded way.

"I am not involved in this at all. What I am trying to do now is use my good offices to try and resolve the matter."

The duchess 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".

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

Earlier the education minister 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."

Concerned parents

On Monday, 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".

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

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

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.