O'Callaghan meets Blair advisers at No 10

The convicted IRA killer turned informer, Mr Sean O'Callaghan, met senior aides of the British Prime Minister in No 10 Downing Street last week, a spokesman for Mr Tony Blair has confirmed.

It is believed that Mr O'Callaghan, who is in hiding after receiving death threats from his former colleagues, met the Prime Minister's chief of staff, Mr Jonathan Powell, the chairman of the proximity talks aimed as resolving the Drumcree standoff. It was Mr O'Callaghan's first visit to No 10, the spokesman said. Mr O'Calla ghan was also involved with a number of prominent unionists in drafting a speech for Mr Blair at the height of the Drumcree crisis.

The speech, which stressed the positive aspects of the Orange Order, was not used because Mr Blair's advisers feared it would encourage Orange intransigence.

According to the historian and columnist, Ms Ruth Dudley Edwards, who brought together the group which drew up the speech, the speech was "not pro-Orange Order, rather it was pro the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland". Ms Dudley Edwards said she had not been asked by Mr Powell to prepare a speech. "I do provide ideas . . . one does things behind the scenes. There was a feeling that a particular type of speech might calm things down."

Ulster Unionist Assembly member, Mr Chris McGimpsey, also participated in the six-hour brainstorming session on July 9th at which the speech was drafted. Others at the meeting, held hours before loyalist paramilitaries attacked the RUC at Drumcree, were Prof Paul Bew, a historian at Queen's University, and Mr Liam Kennedy, also of Queen's.