SOME years ago there was a serious fire at a guesthouse in the Irish holiday resort of Bundoran. A reporter for the national broadcasting company, Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE), filed an interview with an eyewitness to the fatal blaze. But the interview was never broadcast.

THE POINTS system for council housing waiting lists should be changed to reward responsible couples who have a stable relationship before having children, David Blunkett, the Labour spokesman on health, said last night.

Sir: The Government's claim that the changes to be brought about by Maastricht are not new, given our earlier adherence to the Treaty of Rome, resembles a claim that there is no essential difference between a first toe into the ocean and a step taking one out of one's depth (report, 8 June).

(First Edition)

(First Edition)

Lord Fitt, a founder of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, yesterday accused its leader John Hume of destroying cross-party talks on Northern Ireland by meeting the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. The talks are due to reconvene next month but Lord Fitt said: 'I do not think there is any prospect of success.'

THE Supreme Court in Dublin yesterday ruled the Irish state broadcasting organisation Radio Telefis Eireann was wrong in imposing a blanket ban on all interviews with members of Sinn Fein.

THE discussion about Christianity and the Labour Party has nothing to do with claiming some 'moral superiority' for one party over another or about staking out a claim that one set of religious beliefs is better than another. Nor are we trying to solve political problems by simplistic theological solutions. It is rather an attempt to explore the reunion between the ethical code of Christianity with what are the basic values of democratic socialism.

SINN FEIN, the political wing of the IRA, opened its markedly low-key Ard-fheis (annual conference) in Dundalk yesterday, with delegates from the south complaining that they were having great difficulty in attracting electoral support for the party, writes David McKittrick.

Ugur Mumcu, lawyer, journalist, and writer, born Krsehir Turkey 22 August 1942, married 1976 Guldal Homan (one son, one daughter), died Ankara 24 January 1993.

PEACE TALKS on Northern Ireland were demanded yesterday by Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein.

Sir: John Birt argues ('Let us hear their apologies', 19 October) that Sinn Fein should be allowed to speak out on television. In support of his notion, he states:

For four years British broadcasters have been compelled to deliver to their audiences an incomplete version of the politics of Northern Ireland. This is the result of the Northern Ireland Notice, imposed by government on this day in 1988.

BERLIN (AFP) - Willy Brandt, the former West German chancellor, bade farewell from his deathbed yesterday to the Socialist International, the federation of democratic socialist parties he has led for 16 years. Mr Brandt, 78, is suffering from intestinal cancer.