Video: Mairead McGuinness tells disrespectful MEPs to 'go for a coffee' to allow Naomi Long bid 'slán go fóill' with valedictory Brussels speech

Ms. McGuinness castigated some MEPs for talking while the Alliance MEP was making her last speech in the Espace Léopold on Wednesday.

"Could I just ask: we need to listen to the speakers, and there’s a lot of people to my right here who are having a great old chat. There’s a restaurant outside: go for a coffee. This is Ms Long’s last speech here in the Parliament. Please listen with respect," she said.

Mrs. Long said: "Whilst the UK may withdraw from these institutions, the people of Northern Ireland will never withdraw the hand of friendship, the spirit of cooperation, or the shared determination to secure peace and prosperity for all of our people.

"As a child of the Northern Ireland conflict, I’m grateful to the European Union, which helped shape our peace and which provides a model for pragmatic win-win politics based not on division but upon diversity.

"The decisions you make in this place will continue to shape the lives of the people I represent, and I look forward to forging new ways of ensuring that those close and enduring partnerships built between Northern Ireland and this place flourish.

"Finally, whilst we will no longer be colleagues in these institutions, I remain your steadfast colleague outside of them, as together we continue to champion the values of cooperation, interdependence and mutual respect which the European Union represents, until one day we rejoin you here. Au revoir, auf Wiedersehen, slán go fóill, good-bye for now."