Rosemarie Shields, a former SDLP councillor who defected to Peadar Tóibín’s Aontu party, said they had gathered to show “that the North does not want to be next” in introducing an abortion regime. “We want to prove to every woman and every child that we can provide a society that protects them all,” she said.

The President was there to open a new Catholic school. Catherine Sewell, one of the protesters, said it was “not right” that Mr Higgins should have been invited to the school.

“The fact that a Catholic school invited him after he signed in the abortion law in the Free State, and countless babies have been murdered from January because of it, is not right, things like that can’t happen,” she said.