Disgraced wife of N. Ireland leader to resign

LONDON (AP) — The wife of Northern Ireland’s leader will step down as a lawmaker within days, British media reported Saturday, as pressure mounted on Peter Robinson’s shaky coalition government over her admissions of an affair with a far-younger man.

The BBC and Britain’s Press Association cited unidentified sources within Robinson’s Democratic Unionist Party as saying that his wife, Iris, 60, would relinquish her dual position as parliamentarian in London and representative to Northern Ireland’s regional assembly in Belfast within days.

The reported move follows the revelation that she had an adulterous relationship with a man nearly 40 years her junior — and allegations that she solicited tens of thousands of dollars from businessmen to help the teenager launch a cafe.

Iris Robinson was 58 at the time, and the man, Kirk McCambley, was 19.

News of the affair has played poorly with the Robinsons’ socially conservative political base. Protestant minister the Rev. David Mc- Ilveen, a friend of former Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley, who preceded Robinson as Northern Ireland’s first minister, said Robinson needed to step down — at least for a while.

The scandal has turned the couple into a target of ridicule in the British press, and it could have serious political consequences. Robinson’s shaky coalition with Irish Catholics already is under strain over his refusal to agree to transfer responsibility for Northern Ireland’s justice system from London to Belfast.