Con Brosnan, a Free State officer, managed to get safe passage guarantees for republican players like John Joe Sheehy and Joe Barrett to play games, and they used football to overcome some of the bitterness.

REFRESHING signs of Ireland’s changing political climate will be seen on the streets of both the Republic and the North this summer.

A unionist umbrella group for victims of the Troubles plans to march 3,000 people through Dublin in a second attempt at a so-called "Love Ulster" rally, it was revealed today.

A group supporting Protestant victims of the troubles will meet with senior gardaí today to get permission for a major rally in Dublin.

GARDAÍ must not allow another planned Love Ulster parade to pass through Dublin unless it can guarantee there won’t be a repeat of the violence that cost businesses €10 million last year.

A 19-year-old man who set two gardaí alight by throwing petrol bombs during riots at the Love Ulster parade in Dublin last February has been jailed for five years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

YOUR editorial of March 20, in which you welcome the decision by Willie Frazer of FAIR (Families Acting for Innocent Relatives) to seek permission to hold a Love Ulster march in Dublin next September is, in my view, very regrettable.

William Frazier, of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR), the South Armagh Protestant Victims group, wrote to An Garda Síochána and the Department of Foreign Affairs last week, seeking a meeting to discuss the possibility of organising another Love Ulster march in Dublin for mid-September.

A US academic today spoke of his shock at the extent of apparent security force collusion in loyalist paramilitary murders in the North.

IN an ideal world, there should be no problem about victims group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR) holding a rally in Dublin, but unfortunately we know we do not have such a world.

NORTHERN Secretary Peter Hain yesterday dismissed as “preposterous” any suggestion that the dropping of charges against republicans accused of operating an alleged IRA spy ring at Stormont had been politically motivated.

THE Catholic priest who witnessed the completion of IRA disarmament is being investigated by police for alleged incitement to hatred after comparing Northern Protestants to Nazis.

The Catholic priest who witnessed the completion of IRA disarmament is being investigated by police for alleged incitement to hatred after comparing the North's Protestants to Nazis, it was confirmed today.

FATHER Alec Reid, one of the churchmen who witnessed IRA decommissioning last month was at the centre of a political storm last night despite his apology for comparing unionists to Nazis.

The Catholic priest at the centre of a political storm after comparing Northern unionists to Nazis was deeply contrite, but still under fire, tonight.

Controversial comments by Father Alec Reid comparing unionists in the North to the Nazis were said in the heat of the moment, his fellow witness to IRA disarmament claimed today.

The priest who witnessed IRA decommissioning provoked fury after he compared the unionist community to Nazis for their treatment of Catholics in the North.

One of the independent church witnesses to IRA decommissioning tonight compared the unionist community to Nazis for their treatment of Catholics in Northern Ireland.

A unionist leader in the North invited Colombian terror victims to visit Ireland to lobby for the extradition of three IRA-linked men convicted of training Marxist rebels in bomb-making techniques.

Loyalists delivered more than 200,000 newspapers today as part of a new campaign urging resistance against an alleged slide towards a united Ireland.

The spokesman for a controversial group campaigning on behalf of Protestant victims of republican violence has won a court battle for official protection.

Gardaí are to travel to England to question a former agent about an IRA campaign of torture and murder along the border, it was claimed today.

The British government was today facing fresh calls in Northern Ireland to reopen investigations into unsolved murders in south Armagh during the Troubles.