Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness is to have face-to-face talks with victims of IRA violence, it was confirmed today.

A group supporting Protestant victims of the North's Troubles said tonight that plans to hold a major Dublin rally had been ruled out after a meeting with the Government.

IN an ideal world, there should be no problem about victims group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR) holding a rally in Dublin, but unfortunately we know we do not have such a world.

THE Government last night moved to abandon plans to grant 'on-the-run' republicans presidential pardons after Britain did a dramatic U-turn over its own amnesty initiative.

The scrapping of legislation which would have allowed on-the-run terror suspects to return to Northern Ireland without fear of jail was warmly welcomed by a leading victims’ group.

NORTHERN Secretary Peter Hain yesterday dismissed as “preposterous” any suggestion that the dropping of charges against republicans accused of operating an alleged IRA spy ring at Stormont had been politically motivated.

FATHER Alec Reid, one of the churchmen who witnessed IRA decommissioning last month was at the centre of a political storm last night despite his apology for comparing unionists to Nazis.

The Catholic priest at the centre of a political storm after comparing Northern unionists to Nazis was deeply contrite, but still under fire, tonight.

Gardaí are to travel to England to question a former agent about an IRA campaign of torture and murder along the border, it was claimed today.

The British government was threatened with legal action today if it decided to grant an amnesty to ‘‘on the run’’ paramilitaries.