The Sunday World apologized to Gerry Kelly for an article the Irish newspaper published 15 years ago. (Credit: YouTube, "MetalAaron," screenshot)

The Sunday World apologized and paid “an undisclosed sum” to former IRA bomber Gerry Kelly after “wrongly” accusing him of being an IRA chief of staff in 1996 and of being “involved with Martha Pope, an American diplomat, for ulterior motives,” the Guardian reported.

The Sunday World’s story was published 15 years ago.  According to Irish public broadcaster RTE, the newspaper’s apology was “public” and read during court.  In response to the late apology, Kelly commented that the court battle could have been avoided if the newspaper had just apologized to him after the article was published.

The Guardian noted that the newspaper now claims that it “accepts that Mr Kelly had played an important part in ending the violence in Northern Ireland and made a positive and significant contribution to the peace process.”