Former British Conservative Party Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath has died aged 89. Edward Heath became Prime Minister in 1970 and held the post during some of the most violent years of the troubles.
Mr Heath led Britain to membership of the Common Market and was also prime minister on Bloody Sunday when 13 civilians were killed after British paratroopers fired on an illegal civil rights march in Derry on January 30th, 1972.
He played a part in the establishment of a power-sharing executive and a Council of Ireland, agreed at Sunningdale in December 1973. Both these arrangements collapsed under pressure from the Ulster Workers' Council strike of 1974.
His time in Downing Street was also marked by a confrontational approach to pay and the unions which resulted in numerous strikes. With the country on a three-day week and rubbish piling up in the streets the miners threatened to bring his government down.
In 1974 he called an election asking "who governs Britain?" and did not get the answer he had hoped for. The knives were out and a junior colleague Margaret Thatcher surprised everyone by trouncing him in the first round of a leadership contest the following year.
Heath had been party leader since 1964. He entered Parliament as an MP in February 1950 and only stood down at the 2001 election.