Diplomat forced to flee North after UDA death threats

AN Irish diplomat has been forced to flee the North because of death threats from anti-Catholic extremists, the Government said yesterday.

Áine de Baróid from Cork was a member of a diplomatic team building Irish Government links with members of outlawed groups in the North, particularly loyalist paramilitary gangs based in the most impoverished Protestant districts of Belfast.

She fled Belfast in August after receiving death threats from members of the Ulster Defence Association, the largest paramilitary group in the North with an estimated 3,000 members.