I see the Mirror is describing one of the thugs responsible for the murder of Donna Cleary as an 'IRA hitman'. Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone blamed this on republicans. As it happens, the person referred to in that article is a neighbour of one of my party colleagues, who assures me that the guy - who he describes as a serious player in the drugs importation business - "couldn't be further removed from us". In fact, his most recent contact with this criminal ended with a brick thrown through his (my colleague's) window.

So another tabloid lie. Big surprise considering that this same Mirror 'journalist' - one Jimmy Cunningham - was the one who claimed, wholly in contradiction to every source on the matter, that Sinn Féin had orchestrated last month's riots.