The Northern Ireland Assembly is debating a motion which could mean that Saint Patrick's day is declared a nation holiday.

The motion was proposed by Kieran McCarthy of the Alliance Party.

He said it was now time for everyone on Northern Ireland to have an opportunity to celebrate the feast day.

In his motion, Mr McCarthy said that it was strange it was celebrated much more intensively internationally than at home.

The debate about a Saint Patrick's Day national holiday could be the last the Assembly holds before being suspended.

March 17, the day on which Ireland celebrates the saint who is reputed to have brought Christianity to the island in the fifth century, has traditionally not been celebrated by the unionist community in Northern Ireland.

But the Alliance Party's Kieran McCarthy said it was now time for everyone in Northern Ireland to have the chance to celebrate the feast day.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster on Monday, Mr McCarthy said: "Saint Patrick was the man who brought Christianity to this country and I think it would be well and fitting that everyone in this country should have the opportunity to celebrate the feast day. That is not the case at the moment."

However, Democratic Unionist Party Assembly member Sammy Wilson said he would oppose the motion during Monday afternoon's Assembly debate because he believes the day has more to do with celebrating Irish nationalism than Christianity.

He said: "Saint Patrick's Day across the world is nothing to do with the celebration of St Patrick bringing Christianity to Ireland.

'Drunkenness'

"It is seen as an opportunity for people to express their national identity and their Irishness and it is most naïve for anyone to believe that the activities which centre around Saint Patrick's Day are anything to do with Saint Patrick.

"Even the drunkenness that is associated with it is dressed up in nice terminology like 'drowning the shamrock'.

"It is an opportunity for people to declare their Irishness and I don't want any part in declaring a national holiday to do that. I am not Irish, so I don't want to celebrate Irishness.

"I don't think that the activities around Saint Patrick's Day do anything to honour Saint Patrick."

However, Mr McCarthy pointed out that it was the DUP leader, Ian Paisley, who first raised the issue of making Saint Patrick's Day a public holiday.

'Era of opportunity'

He added: "The main thing is that the people who clock in at the shipyard or Shorts, or to any industrial place on Saint Patrick's Day should have the same opportunity to celebrate along with staff at banks, civil servants and Assembly people.

"We are in an era of equality. This is an opportunity for the Assembly to offer equality to every man and woman."

Suspension of the Assembly could be only a matter of days away.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson is to bring legislation before the House of Commons to suspend devolution, for a second reading on Tuesday, if a way can not be found out of the current deadlock over arms decommissioning.

The controversy over the call for a Northern Ireland Saint Patrick's Day holiday follows a recent decision by Belfast City Council to refuse funding for a Saint Patrick's parade in Belfast.