Both Fine Gael and the Labour Party have slammed the celebration of Provisional IRA activities in official party merchandise, accusing Sinn Fein of continuing to profit from some of the worst atrocities of the Troubles. It was not appropriate for a party engaged in the democratic process to reminisce about terrorism, they said.

Brian Hayes, Fine Gael's leader in the Seanad, claimed that Sinn Fein was continuing to lead "a double life" by commemorating IRA activities.

According to Hayes, "they pretend to be a democratic party and then they revel in their murderous past."

The 2007 Sinn Fein Republican Resistance calendar contains photographs marking the anniversary of the Loughgall ambush, during which an entire IRA unit was wiped out A total of eight IRA men were killed in the May 1987 incident after the SAS ambushed a planned IRA attack on an RUC station. One innocent bystander was also killed in the incident.

"I can't say I am surprised by this [calendar] because it is part of the political propaganda whereby Sinn Fein continue to celebrate outrageous atrocities and commemorate some of their own murderers, " said Hayes. "It is part of a mindset that is clearly undemocratic and outdated."

The Sinn Fein online shop sells several items commemorating IRA activity, including tshirts and framed photographs.

Among the slogans printed on tshirts being sold by the party are 'IRA: Undefeated Army', 'Tiocfaidh Ar La' and 'I Still Hate Thatcher', while other t-shirts sport images of armed gunmen.

A spokesman for the Labour Party said that the online shop was proof that the party was continuing to "romanticise" IRA activity and was unwilling to move away from the past.

According to Brian Hayes, merchandise such as the calendar and t-shirts "panders to a crass misunderstanding of Irish history" that is held by many US citizens and younger Irish voters. "They [Sinn Fein] are constantly attempting to rewrite history and explain away their terrorist violence, " he said. "It is important that young people in Ireland realise that they weren't freedom fighters or liberators, they were terrorists who lost and as a result decided to enter politics. Now we have to listen to these same people lecture us about issues such as human rights."

Hayes predicted that the party would not do as well as some people expected in the forthcoming general election.

"People are tired of their endless foot-dragging in the North and are tired of them not having much to say on issues in the South, " he said.

A Sinn Fein spokesman defended the use of images related to the Loughgall ambush on the 2007 calendar, saying that the 1987 event was just one of several events to be commemorated on the calendar.