Archbishop calls for end of terrorist threat

Pressure on the IRA was heightened today as the head of the Church of Ireland urged the Provisionals to declare their terrorist campaign had ended.

As the Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid prepared to make a Commons statement just hours after the re-introduction of direct rule, Church of Ireland Archbishop Robin Eames said it was time for loyalist and republican paramilitaries to announce the threat of violence was lifted and there was no going back to the dark days of the past.