Northern Ireland’s First Minister has called on the Government to apologise for its role in the emergence of the IRA in the 1970s.
Peter Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said: "There is a clear connection between what the IRA did in its infancy and the government of the Irish Republic.
He added: "I think the Irish Republic would do well to look at its role and recognise that it was not the way it should have behaved in those days, and apologise for it because massive death and destruction followed."
The DUP is expected to put forward a motion on Monday asking for an apology from the Government.
Mr Robinson, whose party shares power with Sinn Féin, made his call on the BBC after relatives of victims of an infamous IRA attack in south Armagh asked Taoiseach Enda Kenny to apologise for not doing more to solve the crime.
Relatives of 10 Protestant textile workers killed in 1976 near the Northern Ireland village of Kingsmills met Mr Kenny on Thursday.
Mr Kenny said he told the victims' relatives that the IRA were the common enemy of all of the people of Ireland and promised to reflect carefully on what they had told him.
PA