Sinn Fein has defended its decision to boycott Washington DC for St Patrick's Day amid criticism from political opponents across the island of Ireland. The party's leadership, which normally travels to the US to mark the occasion every year, said it would not participate as part of 'a principled stance against the threat of mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza'. Sinn Fein's president Mary Lou McDonald and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill, the party's vice president, made the announcement on Friday.