NO ONE should be surprised that Eamon de Valera used the Irish Press for his own purposes, because he saw newspapers as a tool of political power and he had an almost insatiable need for such power.

British police today seized half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertiliser in a major anti-terrorist operation.

One of Ireland’s most hard-line republican politicians today claimed the current suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly marked “the chronic instability of English rule in Ireland“.

A car bomb in Birmingham city centre would have caused ‘‘very serious loss of life’’ if it had detonated fully, police said tonight.

No warning was issued before Saturday night's blast at a Post Office delivery depot in north London, but is believed to be the work of the Real IRA.