Evidence against the Birmingham Six was “enhanced”, a top-ranking police chief warned an MP years before their eventual release.

Margaret Thatcher’s chief legal adviser believed prosecutions would “go as high as chief superintendent” within the RUC over an alleged shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland, newly released secret files reveal.

The minister for the environment, Ray Burke, received a stinging reply from his British counterpart after calling for the closure of the Sellafield nuclear processing plant in 1987, writes Seán McCárthaigh    

An IRA group which was killed during an ambush by the SAS in the Co Armagh village of Loughgall in 1987 was responsible for up to 50 murders, secret government documents have revealed.

Minister for finance John Bruton wanted to withdraw Irish troops from peacekeeping in Lebanon in 1987 because Ireland was not being financially reimbursed sufficiently by the UN, writes Seán McCárthaigh