TDs and senators are to visit the Air Corps headquarters, amid fears for the health and safety of staff at Casement Aerodrome.

A tense armed forces homecoming parade passed off without incident in Belfast today where police mounted a huge security operation to keep apart thousands of loyalist supporters and republican protestors.

The Orange Order has called for thousands to come out and welcome home British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan in a planned British Army parade through Belfast.

Britain’s most senior frontline officer on Bloody Sunday today denied that 13 unarmed civilians were killed because the British army was trying to make his suggestion to shoot rioters into a reality.