Trimble tells IRA: End love affair with the gun

There’s little point in proceeding with multi-party talks in Northern Ireland if the IRA refuses to address the need for it to give up all paramilitary activity, Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, insisted tonight.

In a hard-hitting statement issued after a meeting in Downing Street with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Mr Trimble warned that Unionist patience had been “exhausted”.