The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, has said he stands by his description of the South as a "pathetic, sectarian State" and has accused nationalists of over-reacting.
Sinn Féin Education Minister Mr Martin McGuinness described Mr Trimble as "a twit" and said it was not the behaviour expected of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. There has been widespread anger and condemnation on both sides of the Border after Mr Trimble's comments.
The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey, said they were totally uncalled for. The Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, said they were ill-considered and ill-informed, and the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, said Mr Trimble's claim that the Republic was a sectarian State might have been a case of "thought transference".
Defending his remarks, the UUP leader yesterday said there was nothing new in what he had said. His comments had been taken out of context and appeared to have hit "a raw nerve". The reaction of some groups and parties said more about them than it did about his comments, he claimed.
"People are over-reacting and taking something out of context. The context is, and it is something I have said many times before, the contrast between a liberal, multi-national state such as the UK on the one hand and on the other hand a monocultural state which is not as liberal as the UK."
DUP deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson said Mr Trimble's political positions were clearly erratic. "He must have stopped taking the tablets. He has lost all control. On the one hand he is strengthening the Irish Republic's role in Northern Ireland and on the other hand he is bad-mouthing them."
SDLP Agriculture Minister Ms Bríd Rodgers described Mr Trimble's remarks as "deeply offensive" and said he should apologise immediately. "The remarks made by David Trimble at the weekend were unbecoming, to say the least, for a First Minister and leader of the major unionist party.
Mr Trimble's political adviser, Dr Steven King, defended his remarks: "David was not talking about Southern society, he was talking about State policy. He has previously said on many occasions that Southern society is moving in a more pluralist direction." The context of Mr Trimble's remarks was "the same week as an attempt to insert a sectarian amendment into the Irish Constitution".
A spokesman for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, of which Mr Trimble is a member, said its people in the Republic "do not recognise the country he describes as the country they live in". He pointed to a motion passed by the church's 1997 General Assembly which agreed there was "an ever-deepening sense of belonging by Presbyterian citizens of the Republic, the increased openness of society and the wider horizons within which people live their lives (in the South)."
Archbishop Empey said Mr Trimble's comments were in many ways a case of "the pot calling the kettle black". He said they were more reflective of an Ireland that existed when he was a young man than of the state today. A church committee had recently reviewed the Constitution and "there were very few things we could find to be offensive".
The Labour leader suggested Mr Trimble visit his constituency of Dublin South East to get an accurate picture of the Republic's problems and successes. Neither citizens nor impartial visitors would recognise the picture painted by Mr Trimble at the weekend.
Speaking as president of the Progressive Democrats, Mr McDowell said he would like to believe Mr Trimble's comments came from "an excess of rhetoric rather than his deep heartfelt beliefs". On RTÉ radio Mr McDowell asked were the remarks "a case of thought transference: is he applying to the Republic sentiments that are to be used more aptly closer to home?" The Ulster Unionist Council, to which Mr Trimble made his remarks, had 125 members who represented the Orange Order. "Roman Catholic men and women are excluded from participation in that."