The Democratic Unionist Party has extended its sympathy to the family of party secretary and Assembly member for North Belfast, Mr Nigel Dodds, whose nine-year-old son Andrew died yesterday after a long illness. Andrew Dodds had been suffering from spina bifida and hydrocephalus.
The officers, executive and membership of the DUP have expressed their deepest sympathy to Mr Dodds, his wife Diane, son Mark and daughter Robyn.
The leader of the DUP, the Rev Ian Paisley, said on BBC Radio Ulster that Andrew had always been brave in the face of his illness. "Children's lives are only lent to their parents. We have them for a time, sometimes a longer time and sometimes a shorter time. Andrew was a great little warrior." Two years ago, a plainclothes RUC officer was shot and slightly injured by the IRA as he guarded Mr Dodds, who was visiting his son in the intensive care unit at the Royal Children's Hospital in Belfast.