Paisley Jnr welcomes Brady’s call for IRA disbandment

The Democratic Unionist Party’s Ian Paisley Jnr has welcomed a statement from the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, calling on the IRA to disband and renounce violence.

Last week, Mr Paisley condemned Dr Brady for failing to call for IRA disbandment during a speech in which he criticised aspects of policing in the North and called for Catholics to renounce paramilitarism.

After that speech, Mr Paisley described the archbishop as a "terrorist sympathiser" with a "belly full of bigotry".

He has now welcomed Dr Brady’s call for IRA disbandment during a speech at the weekend.

Mr Paisley did add, however, that the archbishop should also have called on Catholics to support the police in the North and to accept that the Good Friday Agreement was unacceptable to unionists.