Former IRA commander honours WW1 dead

A former IRA commander has become the second high-profile Sinn Fein member to honour soldiers who died while fighting for Britain at the Battle of the Somme.

Martin Meehan, a former IRA leader in the north Belfast area, travelled to the Somme graveyard to pay his respects to his grandfather, who was killed in the First World War battle.

Family members had not visited the grave of Cornelius Clarke, a member of the Royal Enniskillen Fusiliers, for 84 years.

Mr Meehan, who is now a Sinn Fein councillor, traced his grandfather's grave with the help of former Ulster Volunteer Force leader Gusty Spence and unionist commentator Roy Garland.

Earlier this year, Sinn Fein's Alec Maskey, the Lord Mayor of Belfast, laid a wreath at the Somme graveyard on behalf of the city.