Ex-IRA man in `gun' gesture

Mr Vincent McKenna, a former member of the IRA, said yesterday he plans to hand over an M-16 automatic rifle in "a symbolic act…

Mr Vincent McKenna, a former member of the IRA, said yesterday he plans to hand over an M-16 automatic rifle in "a symbolic act to help the peace process".

Mr McKenna, who claims to have been an intelligence officer from 1980 to 1992, will "surrender" the weapon during a British television programme to be screened on New Year's Day.

He said he was given the weapon by the film production company.

Mr McKenna is one of the participants in a documentary, Killing Time: The Millennium Poem, based on Simon Armitage's 1,000-line verse written to mark the millennium.

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