Taoiseach briefed by NI murder investigator

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is in talks today with the Canadian judge appointed to investigate six controversial murder cases in the North.

The Irish and British governments chose Justice Peter Cory, a retired member of the Canadian Supreme Court, to investigate the murder cases, which all involve allegations of official collusion.

Justice Cory will decide whether any of the cases warrant a public inquiry.

The killings in question include the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane and the 1999 murder of Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson, who were both killed in loyalist attacks.

There have long been allegations that the British security forces aided those responsible for the deaths.

Justice Cory will also examine allegations that RUC officers stood by and watched while a loyalist mob kicked Catholic father-of-two Robert Hamill to death in Portadown in 1997.

In addition to these killings, the judge will look at two attacks by the IRA, including the murders of Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and his wife in a 1987 landmine attack and the killing of RUC officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan in 1989.

There are suspicions that the gardai may have told the IRA about the movements of the four victims.

The sixth case under investigation is the INLA murder of LVF leader Billy Wright in the Maze Prison in 1997.

Questions remain as to how the killers managed to get guns into the prison and how they gained access to the LVF wing without being noticed.