Ulster captain Johann Muller today spoke of the team’s devastation over the death of one of their players, who died along with his father and brother in a farming accident.

Relations between Sinn Féin and the Government do not appear to have improved following yesterday’s meeting between the two sides in Hillsborough, Co Down.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern tonight insisted that plans for imposing sanctions on Northern Ireland parties that contravene the Good Friday agreement were both consistent with and supportive of the 1998 accord.