Northern Ireland deputy first minister and ex-IRA commander Martin McGuinness has rebuked Norman Tebbit for saying he hopes he is shot in the back for attending a State banquet at the invitation of the Queen.

Despite the glowing warmth of Anglo-Irish relations and the atmosphere of genuine friendship enfolding the remarkably successful State visit of President Michael D Higgins to the UK, it would to folly to pretend all is changed utterly.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has angrily accused the UK's the former Conservative chairman Norman Tebbit of publicly encouraging the assassination of Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister and ex-IRA commander Martin McGuinness has rebuked Norman Tebbit for saying he hopes he is shot in the back for attending a State banquet at the invitation of the Queen.

The public was “played for every vote that could be got” by the Labour Party in the run-up to the election, the Dáil heard last night.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to reassert his authority over a Conservative Party reeling after a week which saw the resignation of a senior minister and claims of incompetence and elitism at the heart of his government.

Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals, edited by Niall Ferguson. Penguin Books, £12.99.

IT’S 30 years, and the last deep recession/depression, since the then-British conservative MP Norman Tebbit effectively urged Britain’s unemployed to ‘Get on yer bike’, and go look for work instead of rioting.

DAVID Cameron admitted he finds it “painful” to work with former IRA chief Martin McGuinness.

Victims of the Brighton bomb are as entitled to a public inquiry as those from Bloody Sunday, Tory peer Norman Tebbit said tonight.

DAVID CAMERON attempted to fight back against a resurgent Liberal Democrats with a personal address to voters in a Conservative party election broadcast.

Final rehearsals wrapped up today ahead of the Irish premiere of a controversial play about terrorists behind infamous atrocities.

GERRY ADAMS yesterday urged loyalist paramilitaries to follow the IRA and ditch their guns.

IT was the most audacious attack yet mounted by the IRA, although the toll in lives and injuries was far less than in many other of its atrocities.

BRIGHTON bomber Patrick Magee is no better than those who recently murdered Ken Bigley in Iraq and would kill again, former Tory minister Norman Tebbit said yesterday.

AH yes. The first iconic image of the week. Mary Coughlan emerging through the front door of Leinster House as the new Minister for Agriculture on Wednesday. But was she waving excitedly? Or was she just drowning.

British politicians were today told to “get on your bike” and fight for the EU constitution by the president of the European Parliament.