Sinn Féin was right to withdraw from talks with the Foreign Secretary after its party leader was excluded, most Belfast Live readers have said in a snap poll.
A total of 66.2% agreed with the party's decision after Mary Lou McDonald was not included in a meeting between Stormont parties and James Cleverly during his visit to Belfast.
The remaining 33.8% believed Sinn Féin was wrong to refuse to join the round-table meeting, which discussed Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol and Stormont's collapse.
Read more: Renewed optimism but no breakthrough in Stormont talks on Brexit NI Protocol
More than 570 votes were cast in the online poll since the row on Wednesday, which also led to the SDLP refusing to join the meeting with the Foreign Secretary.
The controversy overshadowed a series of political talks in Northern Ireland this week to discuss how to resolve issues caused by post-Brexit trading arrangements under the protocol.
The government said the meeting was "for Northern Ireland politicians" and Sinn Féin's leader in the Assembly, party vice-president Michelle O'Neill, had been invited.
It suggested diplomatic protocol meant Mr Cleverly could not meet Ms McDonald - leader of the opposition in the Republic - before meeting his Irish government counterpart, Tánaiste Micheál Martin.
But Mr Martin said he would have had no issue with the Sinn Féin leader attending the meeting.
Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris, who also attended the talks, said it may not have been "wise" to have the Sinn Féin president in attendance because she is a "representative of a parliament in an EU member state".
The UK government and European Union are involved in negotiations to resolve differences over the protocol.
The row led DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to query who leads Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland.
He said: "If in the future Mary Lou McDonald became Taoiseach and we had Michelle O'Neill as First Minister, who's the boss? Who's in charge?
"If we have meetings on a north-south basis, who’s in charge? And I think these are issues that Sinn Féin need to work out.
"I don't need to have a minder with me every time I go to a meeting as the leader of the DUP, so who leads Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, is it Mary Lou McDonald or is it not?"
Speaking on Thursday, Ms McDonald said she had written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about the matter.
She said: "All of us know that the way that we make progress is together, that's how this works, that's what the history of the last 25 years reflects, so any idea of excluding anybody, excluding the leader of any party, needs to be scotched and knocked on the head now."
Responding to the controversy, Mr Heaton-Harris said: "Sinn Féin were invited, it is a shame (Sinn Féin vice president) Michelle (O'Neill) didn't come along because it was an update on the protocol discussions.
"There are many factors which go into the thought process. One, to be quite frank, is that the UK government is negotiating with the European Union.
"We wanted to update Northern Ireland parties on that negotiation and, with the greatest of respect, Mary Lou is a representative of a parliament in an EU member state.
"That might not have been seen as a wise thing to do."
The Secretary of State said he had extended an invite to dinner to Ms McDonald.
"What happened yesterday, happened yesterday. I'm much more focused on the big-ticket items," he said.
Responding to the dinner invitation, Ms O'Neill said: "We're not interested in dinner."
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