‘Keep your dirty hands off Northern Ireland’

IAN PAISLEY yesterday warned Taoiseach Bertie Ahern: “Keep your dirty hands off Northern Ireland.”

However, his words were largely dismissed as hot air, with the prospects of IRA disbandment and a return to power-sharing in Stormont still largely on track.

As the British and Irish Governments wait for an IRA statement to signal an end to criminality, the Democratic Unionist leader also told republicans any peace pledges would take months to prove.