Victims and politicians from across the island of Ireland have voiced anger at the prospect of a form of amnesty on Troubles prosecutions.
Northern Ireland’s two main parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein, have both criticised the reported move by the UK Government to introduce a statute of limitations on prosecuting offences committed prior to the signing of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.
The Irish Government has also made clear its opposition, with Taoiseach Micheal Martin claiming any such proposal would represent a “breach of trust”.
Irish ministers are angered that Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis apparently did not mention the plan during a range of engagements in Dublin on Wednesday.
Two former paratroopers accused of the murder of an Official IRA leader have been formally acquitted after prosecutors offered no further evidence at their trial. The veterans’ trial at Belfast Crown Court collapsed after the Public Prosecution Service confirmed it would not appeal against a decision by Mr Justice O’Hara to exclude statements given by the ex-soldiers about the shooting of Joe McCann in 1972. It was the first trial in several years that involved charges against former military personnel who served in the Northern Ireland conflict. Four other cases involving the prosecution of veterans are at the pre-trial stage in the region’s courts.
The UK’s Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis is to visit Dublin on Wednesday for talks with Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney amid continuing uncertainty at Stormont and turmoil in the now leaderless Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
The meeting follows weeks of high-level contact between officials in Dublin, London, and Belfast which began following the recent spate of rioting in mostly loyalist areas and continuing unionist objections to the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol.
DUP opposition to the Protocol, which imposes some trade barriers between the North and the rest of the UK, was one of the chief factors in the challenge to Arlene Foster, who announced her resignation as DUP leader and first minister last week.
Just a hundred years ago, on May 3, 1921, Ireland was partitioned as an act passed by the British Parliament came into effect.
The 1920 Government of Ireland Act created two separate entities: Northern and Southern Ireland. The bill s original intention was to keep both under British rule but things did not quite go as planned.
26 of the island s 32 counties broke free from the United Kingdom to form an independent, Catholic-majority country which is known today as the Republic of Ireland. Six predominantly Protestant counties in the north stayed British.
A century later, Ireland is still split and the legacy of 1921 has endured.
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media captionArlene Foster plays down talk of a threat to her leadership of the DUP
Arlene Foster s leadership of the Democratic Unionist Party hangs in the balance after party members signed a letter of no-confidence in her.
The party said it would not be commenting.
It is understood there is majority support among the party s Stormont and Westminster ranks - about 80% - for a change in leadership.
It is believed 22 of the party s 27 MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) and four MPs have so far signed the letter.
Only a small number of the DUP membership - MLAs and MPs - will get to vote in a leadership contest.