Patrick Ryan: PSNI reviewing former priest's IRA bombing admission

Patrick Ryan said Margaret Thatcher was right to say he had an "expert knowledge" of bombing

The PSNI is reviewing admissions made to the BBC by a man who said he was connected to a major IRA bombing campaign.

The comments were made by Patrick Ryan, a former priest from County Tipperary.

Speaking on the BBC NI Spotlight series on the Troubles, he admitted links to the IRA's Brighton bomb in 1984.

At a cross-border crime conference in County Cavan on Wednesday, PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne said his staff are "looking into" Mr Ryan's comments.

• IRA Brighton bomb: Patrick Ryan admits link to 1984 attack

"As you would expect, we have a specific line of inquiry we've now got to examine," he said.

"I've got one of our assistant chiefs looking at that [case] today, to see if there are fresh lines of inquiry that we would then need to review our decisions in the past."

He added: "If we have to go to a point of seeking extradition, that's a conversation we need to have with [Garda Commissioner Drew Harris] and his colleagues."

Speaking at the same conference, Irish Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said any extradition request would be considered by the Irish courts.

"In the event of such an application being made, it will be a matter entirely by the courts and not for me."

In a letter to the Met Police the family of Trooper Simon Tipper, who was killed in the IRA's bombing of Hyde Park, called for the investigation into the bombing to be reopened.

Trooper Tipper was murdered alongside three other British soldiers in Hyde Park in July 1982.

The letter read: "We are aware that Ryan was accused by British authorities of involvement in IRA activity in 1988 and was the subject of a previous criminal investigation".

It went on to ask for "confirmation of the MET's position" on whether they will reopen the investigation into Ryan's "confessed crimes".