The President, Mrs Mc Aleese said she accepted full responsibility for the hurt caused by her remarks about Protestant sectarianism made at the Auschwitz commemoration yesterday and hoped those offended would accept her apology.
Referring to the Holocaust in a radio interview yesterday, Mrs McAleese, "They [the Nazis] gave to their children an irrational hatred of Jews in the same way that people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their children an irrational hatred, for example, of Catholics."
Mrs McAleese said this evening that she was "devastated" by the ferocity of the reaction from the Protestant community and accepted that Catholics have also been guilty of sectarianism. She said she took full responsibility for not finishing out the example of sectarian hatred in Northern Ireland which she has used routinely in other interviews.
"I accept absolutely that in relation to sectarianism we all have plenty of things to be ashamed about" President McAleese said.
Her comments sparked an angry reaction from unionist politicians, with the UUP's Mr Michael McGimpsey describing them as "deep-seated sectarianism".
The DUP's Mr Ian Paisley Jnr accused the President, who is from Belfast, of an "irrational and insulting" attack on "an entire generation of Protestant people".
The SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan said he did not believe Mrs McAleese was trying to equate any of the prejudices in Northern Ireland with the systematic genocide of the Nazi regime.
He also criticised unionists for rushing to condemn her when they were slow to confront sectarian attacks and abuse aimed at the Holy Cross schoolchildren or Catholics attending Mass in Harryville in Ballymena.
Sinn Féin's Mr Alex Maskey also branded unionist reaction to the President's comments "hysterical".
Labour's Mr Ruairí Quinn said he fully accepted the general point the President was making, that much religious, ethnic and racial hatred can be transmitted to children at an early age.
"However, in the Irish context, it is important for all public figures at all levels to acknowledge that no section of the community in northern Ireland has been the sole victim of sectarianism," said Mr Quinn.