The British House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin was leant on by “very senior political sources” to fight efforts to make MPs’ expenses more transparent, it was claimed today.

IT was a long time coming, but when Tony Blair issued the prime ministerial public apology to the Conlon and Maguire families for their wrongful imprisonment for IRA bomb attacks, it exceeded their expectations.

A row erupted at the Northern Ireland Assembly today between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein over disturbances in Lurgan which followed the Armagh’s historic All-Ireland Final triumph.