I USED to dread Margaret Thatcher coming to the North because it meant 12 hours in the company of the IRA’s No 1 target.

By Deric Henderson, Press Association Ireland Editor

Whether they loved her or loathed her, virtually all the world leaders she ever met stood in awe of Margaret Thatcher.

Margaret Thatcher voiced concern that a 1989 report into the Hillsborough disaster constituted a “devastating criticism” of police, previously-unpublished Cabinet papers revealed today.

A former British official has accused the sisters of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney of hypocrisy over their decision to snub an awards ceremony in London.

THE exploits of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s only son have often come under scrutiny over the years.

Former Prime Minister John Major today spoke of his regret after his Conservative Party colleague Edwina Currie disclosed details of their four-year affair.

Close political friends of Baroness Thatcher are expressing their sadness that she has been forced to retire from public life.

Irish opposition to the Sellafield nuclear waste reprocessing plant was hysterical and ignorant, former British government press secretary Bernard Ingham claimed today.

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson should get his job back if the Government’s inquiry into the Hinduja passport affair exonerates him, a senior Liberal Democrat peer said today.