Ian Paisley's 'Catholic IRA' remark criticised by MPs

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Ian Paisley has been criticised by the chair of a Westminster committee for referring to "the Catholic IRA".

The comment was made during a meeting of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

Conservative MP Simon Hoare told Mr Paisley the remark was not "conducive to moving things forward".

Alliance Party MP Stephen Farry asked to be disassociated from the remark by Mr Paisley, the North Antrim MP.

Mr Paisley said: "Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, where we remember victims of the Holocaust and other genocides around the world.

"And in Northern Ireland of course we remember the border campaign and the genocide of sectarian murder where the IRA - the Catholic IRA - murdered Protestants of the border."

Mr Farry, the MP for North Down, responded, saying: "It's important to make sure that IRA terrorism and indeed sectarian murders were strongly condemned by the Catholic Church.

"It's nothing to do with Catholicism."

Mr Hoare, the committee chair, told Mr Paisley: "As a practising Roman Catholic myself I would also just like to note that I didn't think the way that that question was phrased was conducive to trying to move things forward."