The Sinn Féin party in west Fermanagh says it has no intention of rebuilding or removing an IRA memorial erected near the village of Belleek 12 days ago.
Its location, close to where two Protestant workmen were killed by the IRA in the 1980s, has been described by the SDLP as unbelievably insensitive and provocative.
The memorial stone was erected at Slater's Cross on the southern side of Belleek. It commemorates an IRA member, Joseph MacManus of Sligo town, who was killed during an ambush on a part-time UDR man near the area on February 5th.
The 21-year-old MacManus was shot when he and his colleagues attacked William Eric Glass, as he called to a local house in his capacity as a dog warden.
The names of two other IRA men also appear on the monument, Antoin MacGiolla Bhride and Kieran Fleming, who were killed in Kesh in Co Fermanagh in 1984.
The SDLP MLA for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, Tommy Gallagher, says he has been contacted by people concerning the monument from across both the local Protestant and Catholic communities. He says he has no difficulty with people commemorating the dead or the victims of violence during 30 years of conflict.
The issue, however, is the location of the monument, which is within 10 yards of the spot where two Protestant workmen, Fred Love and Willy Hassard, were killed by the IRA as they returned from carrying out repair work to a local RUC barracks.
"The location of the monument is very insensitive and indeed provocative, and takes no account whatever of the feelings of the families of the people who were killed there", Cllr Gallagher maintains. "This is happening at a time when republicans tell us about the importance they attach to reaching out to unionists."
But his remarks have been described as over the top by a Garrison Sinn Féin councillor, Stephen Huggett, of Fermanagh District Council. His Sinn Féin cumann raised money for the erection of the monument.
"I am really surprised at the vitriol of Cllr Gallagher", he says. "It is typical of the milk-and-water nationalism that the SDLP have been peddling for quite some time now."
Cllr Huggett says the SDLP hasn't taken into account the fact that the Slater's Cross junction where Mr Hassard and Mr Love were killed has been completely realigned and is over 100 metres from where they sited the IRA memorial.
He rejects the suggestion that the memorial was deliberately placed near the site of the Protestant killings, insisting the SDLP has no evidence that this is the case.
Defending the party decision not to place the memorial nearer to where MacManus was killed, Cllr Huggett points out there is a Joe MacManus Sinn Féin Cumann in Garrison, and many Sinn Féin activists in Belleek.
"We wanted to have something that covered both areas, and that's the reason we decided to put it in a place where it wouldn't be hidden behind a hedge or anything like that," he says.
Up to 200 people atteneded the unveiling of the memorial, among them the former MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, Owen Carron.
The Ulster Unionist Assembly member, Sam Foster, says he, too, has received a number of complaints from local people with regard to the location of the monument, which he says is offensive and intimidating.
Cllr Gallagher suggests the location of the memorial is "more about rubbing the unionist communities' nose in the past rather than trying to plot a peaceful path to the future".
But Cllr Huggett says the memorial and what it represents is part of the building of nationalist confidence, after been downtrodden for so many years under partition.
"This is just a memorial to three volunteers, whether you agree with it or not", he concludes.