Trimble calls for pressure on republicans to continue

NORTHERN Secretary Peter Hain will be making a grave mistake if he fails to put pressure on republicans to disband the IRA, David Trimble warned yesterday.

An emotional Mr Trimble, who is stepping down as Ulster Unionist leader after the party’s traumatic Westminster election, admitted that in negotiations after the Good Friday Agreement he could have adopted a harder approach.

But he claimed republicans had been indulged for far too long by the British and Irish governments over the future of the IRA.