MARTIN McGUINNESS told Queen Elizabeth that he recognised her family was directly affected by the Troubles in the IRA killing of Lord Louis Mountbatten, he disclosed at the weekend.

Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister and former IRA commander Mr McGuinness also linked speculation about a possible apology, from the former IRA leadership for the deaths and injuries it was responsible for, to a Sinn Féin project seeking reconciliation with unionists.

Mr McGuinness, in an RTÉ television interview with Miriam O’Callaghan on Saturday night, revealed how, during his private meeting with the queen and Prince Philip in the Lyric Theatre in Belfast on Wednesday, he spoke of the killing of Lord Mountbatten in Co Sligo in 1979....