British, Irish authorities 'aware of death threat'

Department of Foreign Affairs officials are to go through old Maryfield Secretariat files to check if there are records about the Charles Haughey government warning the Northern Ireland Office of threats to the lives of Belfast solicitors, including Pat Finucane, it was confirmed last night.

They are to conduct the trawl after author and journalist Ed Moloney said that the British and Irish governments would have been aware that the lives of solicitors Mr Finucane, Oliver Kelly and Paddy McGrory were under threat from the UDA before the February 1989 murder of the Belfast solicitor.