A call has been made for an immediate ban on a controversial anti-malaria drug given to British soldiers.

The side-effects of mefloquine, or Lariam, have been linked to severe depression and other mental illnesses.
Conservative MP Johnny Mercer says he has received dozens of letters from service personnel claiming they have become affected since taking it.
The MoD said mefloquine's use was based on expert advice, and it was widely used by civilians and military.
Mefloquine is a once-a-week anti-malarial tablet for soldiers serving overseas.
Mr Mercer, a former army officer and Afghanistan veteran, wants the government to stop prescribing it until further research has been carried out.
He said: "I've had a letter about once or twice a week from not only constituents but people all over the UK who have suffered or know someone who has suffered, they believe, as a result of taking Lariam.
"I just think we need to halt putting this drug out there for our guys and girls to use it until a proper study has been done, so that we know and more importantly our soldiers and their families know that this is a good defence against malaria and they can feel comfortable taking it."
A document from a senior military medic seen by BBC Radio 4's Today programme said that given the mounting evidence, it would be more than reasonable for the government to prescribe an alternative until it was clear that mefloquine was safe.
And Dr Ashley Croft, who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps for 27 years, has carried out two detailed pieces of research on mefloquine and believes around a third of those who take it suffer significant side-effects.
He said: "If anybody was to ask me now should they take Lariam I would say definitely not - under no circumstances should you take Lariam to prevent malaria given that there are safer options available that will not cause you to run the risk."
One senior British army officer, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC he was suffering as a result of taking the medication.
"Short-term, mefloquine robs you of sleep and proper rest and goes on to affect your ability to reason and to remain objective. That's particularly important for servicemen on operations or when working in life-threatening situations.
"Longer-term, the effects manifested into clinical depression - something that is entirely new for me and which has a broad and devastating effect, especially on my family.
"I believe firmly that the mefloquine I was given by the Army as an anti-malarial has induced lasting psychotropic effects, as I have never been affected by anything like this before.
"As a once-proud officer and committed family man, I am now left struggling with depression, which is such a pervasive condition".
There are a number of different types of tablets that protect against malaria.
Mefloquine, or Larium, is one example.
Others include doxycycline (Vibramycin-D) and atovaquone plus proguanil.
Any medicine can have side effects and you may need to take a short trial course of tablets before you travel to check this.
Ask your doctor, nurse or pharmacist providing travel health services which type of tablets you and your family need.
Dan was an army private who served two tours in Afghanistan.
Soon after taking the drug he began having nightmares that were so terrifying he thought he was going mad.
He is still having bad dreams and feeling anxious and paranoid three years later.
He said: "The tablets were basically given to us like any other piece of equipment without any instructions or anything like that."
Two years ago, the US's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave mefloquine its strongest "black box safety warning" to highlight potential neurological and psychiatric side-effects.
But Dr Ron Behrens, a consultant advisor on tropical medicine to the Ministry of Defence, believes this was due to public anxiety rather than scientific evidence.
Dr Behrens, of the London School of Tropical Medicine, said: "It is my view that some of the policy decisions are based on litigation and public concerns above the science, particularly in America."
Manufacturer Roche said: "A recent regular safety assessment conducted by EU health authorities reinforced previous guidance that the benefits of Lariam outweigh the potential risk of the treatment."
Mefloquine was banned from being given to US Special Forces in 2013, but in the UK it remains the drug of choice for military personnel in malarial areas. It is backed by Public Health England.
The MoD has a stockpile of more than 11,500 packs of the drug, according to a parliamentary question and answer.
There are those who believe that, if it were banned, sourcing an alternative would leave the military footing a hefty bill so there is an economic argument for continuing to use it.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "All our medical advice is based on the current guidelines set out by Public Health England.
"Based on this expert advice, the MoD continues to prescribe mefloquine as part of the range of recommended malaria prevention treatments which help protect personnel from this life-threatening disease.
"Mefloquine is used by civilians and military personnel throughout the world and we only ever prescribe it after an individual risk assessment."


Sunderland have accepted an undisclosed bid from fellow Premier League side Watford for defender Younes Kaboul.

The 30-year-old centre-back, who moved to Sunderland from Tottenham in 2015, has told manager David Moyes that he wants to leave for personal reasons.
Kaboul has been given permission to discuss personal terms with Watford.
"The club and the manager have shown an understanding of my personal circumstances and I am grateful for that," Kaboul told the club website.


Car management apps can stay linked to owners' phones even after the vehicle is sold to someone else, a computer security researcher has warned.

IBM researcher Charles Henderson said his phone had stayed connected to a car for "years" after he had sold it.
Mr Henderson called on car makers to do a better job of separating former owners from their vehicles.
The research comes as Kaspersky Lab reports security problems with seven Android apps for cars.
In a speech at the RSA Security conference, Mr Henderson said that despite selling a car years ago he still knew where it was because there was no process in place to unhook connected-car apps from former owners.
"The car is really smart, but it's not smart enough to know who its owner is, so it's not smart enough to know it's been re-sold," Mr Henderson told the CNNTech news site.
The link with Mr Henderson's phone persisted even though he had purged all personal data from it before taking it to be re-sold, he wrote on a blog about his discovery. He did not specify to which make of car he was still connected.
Although there were processes in place to make sure all the keys to a car were handed over, manufacturers and car dealers had no way to disconnect car apps, he said.
Research by IBM suggested many more "smart" devices remained linked to old owners when they were sold on, Mr Henderson said.
"Don't assume you're the only authorised user of a smart device," he added. "Verify it."
At the same conference, Kaspersky published research about problems with seven Android apps used to connect to cars.
Six of the applications tested by Victor Chebyshev and Mikhail Kuzin did not encrypt user names and none had good protections against reverse engineering techniques or hijacking by malware.
"An evildoer can covertly and quickly perform all of the actions in order to steal a car without breaking or drilling anything," wrote the researchers in a paper describing their work.


Peterborough United have signed Crewe Alexandra midfielder Brad Inman on a three-year contract.

The 24-year-old was called up to the Australia squad for their friendly with England last month, having previously played for Scotland Under-21s.
The Adelaide-born player moved to Britain when he was 14 to sign for Newcastle's academy.
"I am delighted to have him on board," Peterborough manager Grant McCann told the club website.
"Brad is a good player, he can play anywhere in the front three or in a diamond formation, he likes to get at people with the ball and scores goals.
"He is a player that I have watched a lot of. He scored 10 goals from midfield for Crewe last season and is a very exciting player."
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


Bristol City will be without Wales defender Adam Matthews for up to four weeks because of a hamstring injury.

The 24-year-old, on loan from Sunderland, had a scan on the injury on Monday, which he suffered in Saturday's 1-0 loss to Newcastle United.
He has made three appearances for the Championship club so far this season.
The club's website said: "It's positive news for the defender, as a more serious hamstring tear could have sidelined him for up to 10 weeks."


The winners of science and maths prizes worth $22m have been announced at a glittering ceremony in Silicon Valley.

The Breakthrough Prize is backed by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, among others.
Prizes were awarded in different categories: life sciences, physics and mathematics.
The awards gala in California was hosted by comedy actor and writer Seth MacFarlane.
"By challenging conventional thinking and expanding our knowledge over the long term, scientists can solve the biggest problems of our time," said Mr Zuckerberg.
In the life sciences, prizes - worth $3m each - were awarded to five individual researchers:
A single award for fundamental physics was shared by five pioneering neutrino particle experiments - whose teams together number more than 1,300 researchers. This is the same research field honoured by this year's physics Nobel.
The five experiments were the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada, the Daya Bay facility in China, along with KamLand, K2K/T2K and Super-Kamiokande, which are all located in Japan.
The mathematics prize went to Ian Agol, who studies phenomena known as three-dimensional manifolds.
Other presenters at the gala included actors Russell Crowe and Hilary Swank, while musician Pharrell Williams gave live performance.
The Breakthrough Prize was founded by Brin and Anne Wojcicki, who runs genetic testing firm 23andMe, Chinese businessman Jack Ma, and Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner and his wife Julia.


A German train controller has admitted two errors that prompted two trains to collide head-on in Bavaria with the loss of 12 lives.

Named under privacy laws as Michael P, 40, he admitted making a signalling error and then dialling the wrong emergency number.
His lawyer said he also admitted playing on his mobile at the time.
Michael P told survivors that he was aware he had "burdened himself with huge guilt".
"I would like you to know that my thoughts are with you," he added, in a statement read by lawyers.
Those who died in the crash at Bad Aibling on 9 February were all men aged between 24 and 59. Another 89 passengers were injured.
Prosecutors said Michael P had been playing the fantasy game "Dungeon Hunter 5" on his phone when he allowed the two trains on to a single-track line.
The court heard from one police official that the controller had regularly played on his smart phone while on shift, even though it was banned. Analysis of his phone records showed that his mobile use often corresponded with his working hours.
"He played almost every time," the official said, according to Germany's DPA news agency.
Although the line has a safety mechanism, prosecutors say the controller mistakenly disabled it, sending two commuter trains towards each other. When he tried to warn the train drivers, he then pressed the wrong alarm button, they say.
Michael P is accused of involuntary manslaughter and faces five years in jail if found guilty.
Some of the injured as well as the relatives of those who died were present when the defendant entered the court, wearing a hood to cover his face.
A lawyer representing some of the families described the confession given to the court as a tactical move, because what he had admitted was already proven.
"The really burning question remains unanswered," said Peter Duerr; how intensively had he been playing with his mobile phone at the time, and to what extent had he been distracted?
Although investigators did look into the role of the controller at the time of the disaster, it was only when they sifted through his phone data that he was fully investigated.


Hannah Cockroft led home a British 1-2-3 to win gold in the T34 800m at the IPC Athletics World Championships.

Paralympic champion Cockroft, 23, beat team-mate Mel Nicholls into second with 14-year-old Kare Adenegan in third.
Fellow Britons Aled Davies and Richard Whitehead also won gold to make it 10 golds in total in Doha.
Davies beat his own F42 discus world record, while Whitehead equalled his world mark to retain the T42 200m title.
Dan Bramall and Toby Gold took silver and bronze respectively in the T33 100m, while Kyron Duke won bronze in the F41 javelin.
Cockroft has expressed fears about her T34 category, with only five athletes from three nations taking to the line for the 800m.
The event is being held at a Worlds for the first time since 1998 and is also scheduled to be part of the Rio 2016 Paralympic programme.
Yorkshire's Cockroft has urged the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to show faith in the category for the future.
"I believe we can fill heats and fill finals when it comes to Rio so please don't take our event away," she told BBC Sport after her victory.
"We were missing Rosemary Little from Australia, who was taken to hospital before the competition started, and there are other nations who aren't here because it isn't a Paralympic Games and they can't afford to send athletes.
"The IPC are doing a great job and our class is growing compared to when I started in 2011, so give us time and we will be there and will do well."
Cockroft, who won 100m gold on the opening day of the competition and will face Nicholls and Adenagen again in the 400m on Saturday, added: "We talked about the 1-2-3 but none of us thought it would happen.
"It is so exciting. We all had our separate plans and strengths so the fact it all pulled together we couldn't have asked for much more.
"I knew that if I went at 200m then I was pretty confident I was going to get it, but I've never been more nervous than I was out there."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Davies, who had hernia surgery 10 weeks ago, won his second gold of the week following his shot put victory on the opening day.
He beat his discus world record of 48.87m with an effort of 49.38 in the third round and improved it to 49.59 in the fifth round - in the F42 event which will not be part of Rio 2016.
"I've delivered on that big stage again," the 24-year-old told BBC Sport.
"I wanted to get over 50m but this is probably the most consistent series of throws I have ever had in competition.
"The medical team have worked really hard to get me here and I have to thank them."
Whitehead won the 200m in 24.10 seconds, ahead of Russia's Anton Prokhorov (24.85) and Denmark's Daniel Jorgensen (25.37).
GB team-mate and Invictus Games captain Dave Henson finished seventh in 27.08 secs at his first World Championships.
"This means the world to me because I've put so much hard work in this year," said 39-year-old Whitehead, a London 2012 gold medallist.
"Today was about bringing back the gold and I did that.
"If you look back to when I made my debut in 2011 and told me then that I would be a three-time world champion, I'd have told you that was a world away."


A man who scared staff at an MP's constituency office has been warned he will go to jail if he ever repeats his actions.

Jaseem Saeed, 39, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire was cleared of two counts of making threats to kill.
His threats at the office of Paula Sherriff came three months before the death of MP Jo Cox in June.
Saeed has been given a year-long community order for affray and must carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.
Leeds Crown Court heard how he had become aggressive at the office of Ms Sherriff, Labour MP for Dewsbury, while asking for help with a passport application to travel to Iraq in March.
He admitted the charge before he went on trial.
Saeed appeared for the sentencing via video link from HMP Armley, where he had been on remand since the offence.
The court heard Saeed threatened to shoot a case worker although the woman did not see a gun.
Mr Justice Goss, who also appeared by video link from the Royal Courts of Justice, told him: "If you behave in this way again, I have already told you, you can expect a significant custodial sentence."
He said it appeared that Saeed, who was originally from Iraq but has lived in the UK for 14 years, does not suffer from any psychiatric conditions but does have "anger management issues".
Ms Sherriff's office is four miles (6km) from the constituency office in Birstall, where Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox died after being shot and stabbed outside her office.


Veteran rock singer Patti Smith has won a prestigious US book award for her memoir, Just Kids.

The 63-year-old received the National Book Award for non-fiction for her work, which chronicles her youth in 1960s New York.
As she collected her $10,000 (Â£6,254) prize, Smith urged publishers not to let technology kill traditional books.
"There is nothing more beautiful than the book, the paper, the font, the cloth," she said at the New York event.
Jaimy Gordon won the fiction award for Lord of Misrule, about a horseman's scheme to rescue his failing stable.
It was a surprise win for Gordon, who has been releasing books through small publishers for the last 20 years.
She said she had not expected to win, but that friends had told her she had given them hope just by being nominated.
The poetry award was presented to Terrance Hayes for his fourth collection, Lighthead
Kathryn Erskine won the young people's literature award for Mockingbird, about an 11-year-old with Asperger's syndrome coping with her brother's death.
Best-selling author Tom Wolfe was presented a medal for distinguished contribution to American letters.
The 79-year-old author of The Bonfire of the Vanities sang a few lines from The Girl of Ipanema as he collected his honour on Wednesday.
The National Book Awards have been presented annually by the National Book foundation since 1950.


Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has personally apologised to the family of a stroke patient who was turned away from a hospital's specialist unit.

John Mallalieu, 89, from Caunton, died in December, two weeks after his ambulance was diverted from a hospital near Mansfield to Nottingham.
A report said a "catalogue of errors" had led to an "unacceptable delay" in him getting treatment.
Mr Hunt said lessons had been learnt from the "catastrophic mistakes".
An ambulance took 90 minutes to arrive and then staff at the specialist stroke unit at King's Mill Hospital, near Mansfield, told paramedics they were able to accept Mr Mallalieu.
However, staff called back to say they were due to close for the weekend and diverted the ambulance to Nottingham City Hospital.
Mr Mallalieu did not receive treatment for almost three hours and died two weeks later in intensive care.
Speaking to BBC Nottingham, Mr Hunt said the patient's family had been "badly let down".
"I would personally like to apologise for what happened. It was totally unacceptable," he said.
"A whole series of catastrophic mistakes were made.
"Nothing we say can bring back Mr Mallalieu or make up for what happened, but I want to make sure we learn every single lesson so that it can never ever happen again.
"The best comfort we can give Mrs Mallalieu in this horrible situation is the assurance that the NHS has learnt from what happened."
Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust which runs King's Mill Hospital and the East Midlands Ambulance Service said no individual would be disciplined for the mistakes.
The organisations blamed "systematic" or "organisational" errors for the mistakes and said changes had been made.


UK Sport's decision to withdraw all funding from badminton will give "no chance at all" to young players hoping to make a career in the sport, says Olympic bronze medallist Marcus Ellis.

Huddersfield-born Ellis, 27, was part of Great Britain's first men's doubles medal-winning partnership at Rio 2016, along with Chris Langridge.
However, UK Sport named it as one of five sports to lose financial support.
"I'm quite scared for our future," Ellis told BBC Look East.
"People coming up, wanting to have a good career in badminton, who are 16, 17, 18 years old and just starting out, without this funding, they have no chance at all.
We are going to fight for this - we're not just going to take this lying down
Speaking at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes, the world number 20 continued: "The Athlete Personal Award funding goes a long way to helping me play every single day, it's not the money for myself.
"It pays for the programme, the shuttlecocks, the courts - so it won't just be me that is affected.
"It's the people coming up, wanting to get involved, without this funding effectively they have no chance at all to make it."
Archery, fencing, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby have also lost their funding.
However, the next step for badminton will be to appeal and fight the decision, something Ellis says is down to the sport's administrators.
"It's not the players' role that we can get involved. We've got a fantastic support term who will fight to the very end, we've got faith in our support team," he added.
"We have faith in our chief executive and our performance director have got what it takes to get this decision turned around in our favour."


It's no surprise that Trident nuclear weapons have become a big issue in the campaign.

Opposing nuclear weapons is an article of faith in the SNP. And Labour has a memory of being hounded by Conservatives in the 1983 general elections, when it argued against having a nuclear deterrent.
That was at the time that the Trident system was being built, replacing Polaris. The next term of the Westminster parliament will face a decision on whether Trident is renewed with new submarines and missiles.
The four current Trident-armed Vanguard Class submarines are due to retire by 2028. The missiles on them are having their operational lives extended to 2042.
Work has already begun on submarine design, but the big decision is yet to come.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said it will cost £17.5bn to £23.4bn to procure the replacement system. That is the estimate at 2013-14 prices.
Of that, between £12.9bn and £16.4bn would be spent on the submarines themselves.
And it is assumed that the submarines would be built in the specialist yard at Barrow in Cumbria, where they built their first sub in 1886, for the navy of the Ottoman Empire. Last year, it was granted £300m for an upgrade, allowing it to build larger submarines than before.
The work that's been done on the Successor class submarines already runs into billions. The concept phase cost £854m, beginning in 2007. It is being followed by the assessment phase, with a budget of £3.3bn, of which £1.2bn had been spent a year ago. That buys steel with which to start construction and early work at Rolls-Royce in Derby on building new engines.
Such big MoD procurement programmes are notorious for going over-budget. The total estimate in 2006 was £15bn to £20bn.
That includes the cost of running and servicing the submarines over a projected 40-year lifespan.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has arrived at the round £100bn figure by two routes. One is to take the MoD's stated intention to spend 5-6% of its defence budget on running its nuclear deterrent.
CND estimates that at £2bn to £2.4bn per year, and multiplies by 40 - though, of course, defence budgets can go up or come down.
The different approach is a breakdown of costs. CND estimates £57bn in running costs, plus £13bn to decommission the submarines and weapons in the 2060s.
Add to that the upper end of estimates for building the submarines, at £26bn, and another £1bn for conventional military forces to protect them.
CND also adds more than £3bn for the cost of upgrading nuclear warheads and then replacing them in the 2030s.
That amount is disputed, because the MoD says the warhead and missile replacement costs are included in its overall procurement budget.
Arguably, the ultimate deterrent in an uncertain world is....
..... or alternatively
The MoD says the Faslane and Coulport bases on the Clyde have about 3,500 uniformed Royal Navy personnel, 1,700 contractors and 1,600 other civilian employees.
Of those, around 500 civilians are exclusively linked to the nuclear work, while the number is rising as other submarines, without nuclear weapons, have their bases moved to the Clyde.
At the Barrow-in Furness boatyard, there are more than 5,000 people employed by BAE Systems, and it is expected that an additional 1,000 would be taken on if the main "gateway" decision on the Successor class is made in 2016.
Is employment a reason for building the next generation of nuclear-armed sub? Not according to one Liberal Democrat minister, who said in 2012 that the government would be better spending the money on re-locating the workforce to the Bahamas.
What's the truth behind the politicians' claims on the campaign trail? Our experts investigate the facts, and wider stories, behind the soundbites.
Read latest updates or follow us on Twitter @BBCRCheck


Scottish Labour wants a legal limit on the caffeine content of alcoholic drinks which would effectively ban the tonic wine Buckfast.

The party hopes to amend the forthcoming alcohol bill to stop drinks firms using more than 150 milligrammes of caffeine per litre of alcohol.
Buckfast currently contains two-and-a-half times that amount.
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said the limit would help to curb the problem's caused by "wired, wide-awake drunks".
The party set up an Alcohol Commission which made the recommendation on limiting caffeine in its interim report.
It also said that the ban of selling alcohol to under 18s in Scotland should be better enforced.
Based on the report, Labour is planning a number of amendments to the government's alcohol bill.
A debate on its details is due to be had at Holyrood next month.
She said Labour wanted to see a legal limit on the level of caffeine in alcoholic drinks of 150mg per litre which would mean that any pre-mixed alcoholic drink containing a higher level of caffeine could not be legally sold in Scotland.
Ms Baillie said that Labour would also bring forward further amendments to introduce a mandatory "Challenge 25" scheme to stop underage drinking and establish pilot schemes for alcohol treatment and testing orders to tackle the problem drinking of offenders.
She added: "I believe that tackling Scotland's hard drinking culture is a national priority.
"We need to consider radical measures to reduce the level of problem drinking. That's why Labour established the Alcohol Commission and I am grateful to its members for taking their task so seriously.
"What we are getting today is only the interim report, but we will use it to inform our response to the legislation currently going through the Scottish Parliament and bring forward amendments.
"In particular, we will act on the report's recommendations for strong action to limit the availability of alcoholic drinks with active ingredients by seeking to impose a legal limit on the level of caffeine in alcoholic drinks.
"If the SNP are serious about tackling Scotland's hard drinking culture then they should stop obsessing about minimum pricing, recognise the seriousness of this report and support our amendments."
The commission's chairman, Professor Sally Brown, said her team had consulted widely, but she added that there was still a great deal of work to be done.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said the report failed to acknowledge the "substantial changes" already made to Scotland's licensing laws or address the issue of minimum pricing.
Buckfast only represents 0.5% of Scottish alcohol sales, she said.
"It's clear that banning - or to be more exact reducing the caffeine content, not the alcohol content - would do nothing to reduce either alcohol misuse or the health harm it causes," she added.
Ms Sturgeon said the government would be happy to consider any "sensible, evidence-based amendments" to the alcohol bill.
Jeremy Beadles, chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said the commission's approach was more encouraging approach than the Scottish government's "relentless pursuit" of minimum pricing.
"While we don't believe it is constructive to focus attention on individual products, we do support the commission's ambition to pursue an overall agenda of cultural change, and we are keen to continue to work with the commission in developing their final proposals," he added.


A former political journalist turned nun, an architect of the Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland's football manager are among a group of prominent people opening up to BBC Radio Ulster over Christmas.

BBC Talkback has a series of five in-depth interviews starting on Christmas Eve.
The subjects are Ian Paisley's widow Baroness Paisley, former BBC journalist - now nun - Martina Purdy, former SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon, former PSNI deputy chief constable Judith Gillespie and Northern Ireland football manager Michael O'Neill.
They will all give their thoughts on Northern Ireland society as well as their own lives.
Conducting the interviews is BBC Talkback presenter William Crawley.
"We always like to give people something different at Christmas. Instead of having highlights of the year, that kind of thing, it's an opportunity to get deeper into somebody's life, to find out a bit more about the textures of somebody's life, rather that just what we know about them," he said.
"It's a pretty diverse group of people and they have different perspectives about where this society is going.
"We've asked them to think of Northern Ireland in terms of New Year's resolutions - what are their hopes for this place, how do we improve this place?"
William said that all five had been great to interview.
"Some of them are really personal, some of them really open up and tell you about their personal life."
All five interviewees also chose five tracks of music and William said their choices told a lot about them.
"For example, you might think that a nun is going to chose Ave Maria - but not when the nun is Martina Purdy," he said.
"The songs are often very personal. For example Baroness Paisley chose a piece of music that was performed at the funeral of Ian Paisley, but was also performed at the wedding of one of her daughters."
He said there were a number of highlights that stood out from the interviews.
"A standout in the politics issue is Seamus Mallon talking about how the Good Friday Agreement came about," he said.
"He says all the parties were involved in two years of negotiations, but Sinn FÃ©in, he says, had already done all of their negotiating before the beginning of the rest of the talks. They had negotiated with the British government, the Irish government and the American government, they had an understanding, they knew what they wanted, they knew what they were getting.
"So I said to him 'are you saying it was a stitch-up?' and he smiles and says something to the effect of 'that's one way of putting it'."
He said Martina Purdy's story is a much more personal and spiritual journey.
"That's the one I was, in a sense, most looking forward to, because the last time I saw Martina Purdy, she looked like the Martina Purdy I remember and she was a journalist," William said.
"Next time I see her, she's dressed as a religious sister looking very different - she describes it as a make-over in reverse.
"What a lot of people want to know is why would you do that. Why would you make that journey?"
The first Talkback interview will be with Martina Purdy on 24 December, followed by Seamus Mallon, Michael O'Neill, Judith Gillespie and Baroness Paisley from 28-31 December.


A Mexican woman who had been living in the US since the age of 14 has been deported to Mexico, immigration officials have told the BBC.

Seven protesters were arrested overnight outside the immigration office where she was being held.
Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, 36, a mother of two US-born children, crossed the southern border from Nogales, Arizona at 10:00 local time.
Protesters had tried to block vehicles transporting her, but were unable.
On Wednesday night, protesters, who feared her deportation under President Donald Trump's clampdown on immigration, blocked a van believed to be carrying Ms de Rayos.
It was one of several vehicles stopped from leaving the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) centre on Wednesday evening.
"Seeing my mom in that van... it was unexplainable. It was really heart-dropping," her daughter Jaqueline said during a press conference after the deportation was announced.
"No one should ever go through the pain of having their mom taken away from them, or the pain of packing her suitcase," the 14-year-old said through tears.
According to US media Ms de Rayos was arrested in 2008 during a raid on her workplace and was convicted of identity theft for possessing false papers.
But she was allowed to continue living in Arizona as long as she checked in with her local ICE office in Phoenix every six months, the report adds.
Read more on President Trump's immigration order:
Banned: An Iraqi family's immigration story
Is US heading for constitutional crisis?
Is Trump's immigration order legal?
It was during this check in on Wednesday that she was taken into custody, just days after Donald Trump signed an executive order broadening the regulations under which some people will be deported.
It stipulates that any undocumented immigrants convicted of a criminal offense get priority for deportation.
"We're living in a new era now, an era of war on immigrants," Ms de Rayos's lawyer, Ray A Ybarra Maldonado told the New York Times.
"Ms. Garcia, who has a prior felony conviction in Arizona for criminal impersonation, was the subject of a court-issued removal order that became final in July 2013," a spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the BBC.
Despite appeals, judges "held she did not have a legal basis to remain in the US", Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe said.
"ICE will continue to focus on identifying and removing individuals with felony convictions who have final orders of removal issued by the nation's immigration courts," she added in a written statement.
Dozens of activists gathered outside the centre in a bid to block vehicles from leaving, many of them chanting "justice".
Police said seven people had been arrested "without force" but that most of the protesters were "peaceful and exercising their rights properly".
Mr Trump's far-reaching executive orders have also suspended refugee resettlement and blocked individuals from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the US.
The move sparked numerous protests in the US and across the world, as well as several legal challenges, although the American public appears to be evenly split on the issue.
The travel ban was eventually halted last week and a US court of appeals is due to issue its ruling on whether the executive order was justified or not in the coming days.


Former Sheffield United striker Ched Evans has been released from prison after serving half of his five-year sentence for rape.

The 25-year-old was found guilty in April 2012 of raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel in May 2011.
Evans maintains his innocence and will make a "very personal and profound" statement on his website next week.
Almost 150,000 people have signed a petition urging Sheffield United not to take the Wales international back.
But Blades manager Nigel Clough said he had held talks with club officials about the possibility of Evans returning.
Evans left Wymott Prison, near Leyland in Lancashire, in a car at about 05:30 BST on Friday.
United signed the player for £3m in 2009, but released him the month after he was convicted of raping a woman at a hotel near Rhyl, Denbighshire.
Evans denied the offence, but was found guilty by a jury at Caernarfon Crown Court.
A statement on his website on Friday said he would continue to "fight to clear his name".
It added: "Next week Ched will make a very personal and profound statement by video. Ched is now adjusting to normal life after serving a sentence for a crime consistently denied."
Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor said last week that Evans should be allowed to continue his career after his release.
And Clough told BBC Radio Sheffield on Wednesday: "We've had one or two discussions and the owners will make a decision on it.
"It is above a football level. If he comes back then we [the coaching staff] will decide whether to play him or not."
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg urged the club's owners to "think really long and hard" before re-signing Evans.
Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, said: "When you take a footballer on, you are not taking just a footballer these days, you are also taking on a role model."
Richard Caborn, former sports minister and ex-MP for Sheffield Central, said Evans must "show remorse and say sorry" before he can be considered for a return to playing professionally.
Former Manchester City forward Evans, capped 13 times by Wales, scored 48 goals in 113 games for the Blades before his imprisonment.
Jill Saward, who was raped in the notorious Ealing Vicarage case in 1986, believes allowing Evans to play professional football again would send out "a totally wrong message".
"We don't want young people being influenced by icons or celebrities who have a past like this," Saward, a high-profile victim of crime campaigner, told BBC Breakfast.
"I'm not saying he can't do anything in football but I don't think he should be playing."
Christopher Stacey, director of reformed offenders' charity Unlock, argued on Breakfast that Evans deserves a second chance.
"There is a difference between condoning his behaviour and giving him a job," said Stacey.
"People like Ched Evans have to go somewhere. They are back in the world and we have to find a way of reintegrating them.
"Ultimately people have to be the best at the job they are going for and that's a decision Sheffield United have to make as an employer."


Shakira appears to have struck up a slightly unlikely friendship with former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The Colombian pop star was photographed with the ex-PM in Switzerland, briefly causing much confusion on social media.
But Shakira explained they had been speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos about global education - something she's a known campaigner for.
"With Gordon Brown discussing the next steps to secure new major financing for education," she tweeted.
The World Economic Forum is an annual festival where politicians, business moguls and campaigners meet to discuss the state of the world.
In this case, Shakira - who is best-known for her hip-shaking pop hits - was calling on business leaders to help support new parents who want to spend more time at home with their children.
Shakira is a global ambassador for Unicef, while Mr Brown recently served as the United Nations Special Envoy on Global Education.
It's actually not the first time the pair have met.
Shakira visited Mr Brown in Downing Street in 2006, and two years ago she presented him with a petition signed by more than 10 million people calling for all children around the world to have access to education.
The singer has previously said of Mr Brown: "I know for a fact that he is one of those leaders who is committed to promoting universal education. That conversation was quite serious."
It's not the first unusual politician-celebrity friendship.
Angelina Jolie met former Conservative party leader William Hague several times while he was UK foreign secretary.
The pair appeared at a London summit dedicated to ending war rape and visited Bosnia and Herzegovina together to meet rape victims.
A whole host of celebrities were keen to be associated with Barack Obama when he first ran for US president in 2008, with Will.i.am campaigning on his behalf and Beyonce singing it his inauguration.
Some musicians would prefer their encounters with politicians to be forgotten, however.
While Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher was happy to meet with the then prime minister Tony Blair in 1997 during the New Labour movement, he later said he regretted the famous photographs of them together.
He told the New Statesman in 2013 that while he was proud to have endorsed Labour, he "did regret that picture at No 10 that night... I can still smell the cheese!"
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A man has admitted stabbing a fellow party-goer nine times after taking offence over a comment made about him.

Lee McIntosh, 20, attacked Kenny Drew outside a flat in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, in September last year.
He followed Mr Drew outside after the victim made a remark about McIntosh walking about with paper over his face.
McIntosh admitted assaulting Mr Drew to the danger of his life. At the High Court in Glasgow, he was remanded in custody after sentence was deferred.
The court heard how McIntosh had been invited to the party and was initially well behaved.
Mr Drew also turned up having earlier been at a nightclub.
McIntosh was later seen messing about with paper covering his face.
Mr Drew - who did not know McIntosh - made a remark, which he appeared to take exception to.
McIntosh later had another go at Mr Drew, which resulted in him deciding to leave the party.
McIntosh followed a "scared" Mr Drew out and repeatedly stabbed him. As the victim slumped to the ground, McIntosh yelled to others: "I've not got the knife - I don't want to go to jail."
The attacker fled, but was later traced by police.
The court heard Mr Drew is scarred for life as a result of the attack. He continues to suffer from depression and now finds every day tasks difficult.


They were arguably Donald Trump's most striking claims to date: a series of tweets, accusing then-President Barack Obama of wire-tapping Trump Tower during the election.

The claim appeared to come as a surprise, and was not backed up by any evidence.
First Mr Obama's spokesman, then the former US intelligence chief James Clapper denied any wiretap had been ordered.
But President Trump, via his press secretary Sean Spicer, has urged Congress to investigate the "troubling" claims, alongside its current investigations into allegations of Russian hacking during the election.
FBI Director James Comey has reportedly denied the allegation and asked the US justice department to reject it.
He is said to have asked for the correction because it falsely insinuates that the FBI broke the law.
The New York Times and later by NBC quoted officials as saying that Mr Comey believed there was no evidence to support Mr Trump's allegation.
The justice department did not issue any immediate statement.
Both the House and Senate intelligence committees are currently looking into the possibility of Russian interference during the 2016 election, inquiries launched in January.
They have promised wide-ranging investigations, carried out on a bipartisan basis, which will not shy away from looking into potential links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, as well as Russian "cyber activity".
Both committees have conceded these will be time-consuming investigations, and at least one member of the House intelligence committee has expressed his annoyance at another layer being added
"Ok @PressSec, as a member of the committee onto which you've dumped this mess, I look forward to seeing your evidence," Democrat Jim Himes tweeted.
Mr Trump and his team have provided no evidence to say the phones at Trump Tower were wiretapped, and now Mr Clapper, who was then director of national intelligence, has categorically denied such an order existed.
As intelligence director, he told NBC, he would have known about a "Fisa court order on something like this".
This is a reference to the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which can grant wiretaps on national security issues.
Mr Obama's team have outright denied any involvement, saying Mr Trump's tweets are "simply false".
A warrant, if it existed, would most likely have been ordered by the Department of Justice independently of the White House.
On Sunday, former press secretary Josh Earnest told ABC: "This may come as a surprise to the current occupant of the Oval Office, but the president of the United States does not have the authority to unilaterally order the wiretapping of an American citizen.
"If the FBI decided to use their wiretapping authority in the context of the counterintelligence or criminal investigation, it would require FBI investigators, officials at the Department of Justice going to a federal judge, and making a case, and demonstrating probable cause to use that authority to conduct the investigation. That is a fact."
The only way Mr Obama could have ordered surveillance without going through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa court) is if there was no US citizens involved.
In this case, considering the target is allegedly Trump Tower - which definitely involves American citizens - this would have been hard to argue.
The Fisa court has been described by CNN as possibly "the most powerful court you have never heard of".
The secretive court approves surveillance warrants under Fisa against "agents of a foreign power", mainly to either the FBI or NSA.
In this case, the reported target of the FBI's application was two Russian banks.
Any application has to be approved by one of 11 sitting judges.
Rumours of an order granted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) have been circulating for some time.
On 7 November - the day before the country went to the polls - former British MP Louise Mensch reported the order was approved in October..
According to Ms Mensch, it was issued in connection with a private server and activity between two Russia banks.
She also mentions - like Mr Trump in his tweets - that an earlier order had been turned down.
In January, the BBC's Paul Wood - writing in the wake of claims the Russian government had compromising material on Mr Trump - said he also knew of the Fisa order.
Neither Mr Trump nor his associates are mentioned in the order, Mr Wood reported.
The Guardian also mentions the order at about the same time.
None of them mention wiretapping of phones.
It is then seemingly not mentioned again until Mark Levin, a conservative radio host in the US, talked about it on Thursday, when he referred to it as a "silent coup".
His show was followed up with an article in Breitbart on Friday, which mentions wiretapping and "eavesdropping" sought by the "Obama administration". It is not clear how their claims were sourced.
None of this has ever been confirmed by anyone in authority.
President Trump's tweets were sent out in a flurry the next morning. It is unclear if he was aware of any of the previous reports - he does not appear to have tweeted about it before.


Southport climbed out of the bottom four of the National League despite being held to a goalless draw at home by Solihull.

Moors keeper Daniel Lewis was in inspired form for the visitors throughout, and was forced into action in the opening stages as he made a point-blank save from Andrai Jones.
Akwasi Asante, having scored five goals in as many games, went close twice at the other end for Solihull, seeing his shot well-saved before firing against the angle of post and bar after 17 minutes.
Asante went close again before Lewis made a fine save from Jack Higgins' header shortly after the break.
Jack Byrne had a header cleared off the line in the dying moments as Solihull threatened to take the win, but both sides had to settle for a point.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Southport 0, Solihull Moors 0.
Second Half ends, Southport 0, Solihull Moors 0.
Substitution, Southport. Ruben Jerome replaces Liam Hynes.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Omari Sterling-James replaces Joel Dielna.
Substitution, Southport. James Caton replaces Jordan Lussey.
Second Half begins Southport 0, Solihull Moors 0.
First Half ends, Southport 0, Solihull Moors 0.
George Carline (Solihull Moors) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Curtis Obeng (Solihull Moors) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up.


Great Britain can become the first nation to win more medals after hosting the Olympics and better its London 2012 success at Rio 2016, says UK Sport.

An exact target will be set next summer, but with a year to go until the 2016 Games in Brazil, UK Sport says improving on the record haul of 65 medals in 2012 is "within scope".
Since the modern Olympic era began in 1896, no host country has increased its medal tally at the next summer Games.
A Virtual Medal Table calculated by sports data company Infostrada Sports projects Great Britain will collect 48 medals.
Liz Nicholl, UK Sport chief executive, said the "aspirational goal" was "not probable but possible". She told BBC Sport: "If it was easy, other nations would have done it before."
UK Sport director of performance Simon Timson admitted it was a "huge challenge" to repeat the success of a home Olympics, but said the next 12 months would see "all the innovative expertise in British sport come to the fore".
On Tuesday, Sports Minister Tracey Crouch announced a consultation on sports funding, warning the mounting cost of Olympic and Paralympic success is "at odds with the current financial climate".
How can Team GB top the 29 golds, 17 silvers and 19 bronzes of 2012?
BBC Sport assesses their chances - and those of their rivals - in some of the sports where Team GB will expect to prosper.
2012 medal count: 6 (4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
Former 110m hurdle world champion Colin Jackson's verdict: "I'm pleased with the shape British Athletics is in. You've got reigning Olympic champions Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford still performing well, and Jessica Ennis-Hill, in her first year back since becoming a mother, with her sights set on Rio.
"There are also promising young athletes coming through in many events. A new British record has been set by Isobel Pooley in the high jump, Shara Proctor has broken the British record in the long jump and Dina Asher-Smith, the British 100m record holder, is running exceptionally well.
"The team has belief, they believe they can be contenders, and that will have a significant impact on how they will perform in Rio."
2012 medal count: 5 (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
BBC Sport boxing writer Ben Dirs' verdict: "The tortuous qualification process for the Rio Olympics means it is impossible to predict how many boxers will compete for Britain, let alone how many medals - if any - they will win.
"A measure of how difficult it will be even to reach Rio is that only the top two boxers in each division will qualify via September's men's World Championships in Doha - and only the top six from the upcoming European Championships will qualify for Doha. However, it should be noted that there will be three more qualifying tournaments for the men in 2016.
"Super-heavyweight Joe Joyce qualified for Doha by winning gold at the European Games, as did welterweight Josh Kelly, who won bronze. Liverpool middleweight Anthony Fowler and Welsh flyweight Andrew Selby, who boxed in London, are both ranked in the top five in the world in their divisions.
"Reigning Olympic women's flyweight champion Nicola Adams is probably the best bet for a medal at this stage. Adams is also the reigning Commonwealth and European Games champion, although world silver medallist Lisa Whiteside, world-ranked three, might cause a selection headache. Sandy Ryan, who is moving down to lightweight, could also do well."
2012 medal count: 12 (8 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)
Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman's verdict: "With an unprecedented medal haul at the last two Olympics surpassing that of most countries, the GB cycling team have set their personal bar so high it's almost unthinkable that they could sustain the same level of success.
"In the 2015 World Championships - the only gauge in my view as to what will come next - they have been competitive in most Olympic disciplines but winning in none.
"Assuming a resurgence of form on the day, something the team is good at, two or three golds would be a great and achievable result for the squad, but where those medals will come from is far from certain.
"The recent World Championships in Paris saw the team walk away without a single gold to their collective name, a far cry from their Olympic achievements of three years earlier. But all is not lost, the squad has many fine young athletes still in the hunt as the large spattering of silvers and bronzes showed.
"Sir Bradley Wiggins is now back on the scene and fully committed to the track programme. His selection is not guaranteed but we have to assume he will both make the grade and help the men's team pursuit claw their way back onto the top step next year in Rio.
"Fellow road pro Mark Cavendish's selection for the track team is far less certain due to his road commitments, which will not allow him the time he needs on the boards to prepare. Indeed, he will likely have to compete at the Tour de France just days before, so his selection will probably be confined to the road race.
"If Cavendish does decide to pursue track selection, he would be a fantastic omnium rider, but time is running out for the Manxman if he wants to take that path.
"Australia have been playing bridesmaid to GB for the last two Games and now look to have really got their act together.
"Apart from the antipodeans, it is hard to say where the challenges will come from because, for the first time I can remember, the medals are not confined to the dominant few.
"At the World Championships in February the 16 golds on offer were won by nine different nations. That said, alongside Australia, we can expect the strongest challenges to come from an invigorated France in the sprint events."
2012 medal count: 1 bronze
Olympic silver medallist Leon Taylor's verdict: "In London, it was all about Tom Daley on the last day as he effectively needed to win a medal to save the sport from a funding axe. Heading into Rio, there are medal opportunities in a multitude of events and that is something Great Britain have not had before.
"UK Sport set a target of one or two medals for the Kazan World Championships and the team went on to have a record-breaking event, claiming four with Jack Laugher showing just how talented a diver he is.
"That does not mean it will definitely happen again next year, but British Diving is in such a great place now and if they perform to their ability there is every chance that they can win more than the one medal they did at London 2012.
"China have long been the strongest diving nation and we saw again at the World Championships that they have some great athletes. But they are weaker than in previous years and we are starting to see other nations challenge them.
"Aside from Great Britain, Russia, Canada, and Mexico are capable of winning medals while North Korea shocked everyone with their first two world medals in history in Kazan."
2012 medal count: 5 (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
British Equestrian Federation performance director Dan Hughes: "World-class programme riders hold the world number one spot in our three Olympic disciplines: Charlotte Dujardin in dressage, Scott Brash in jumping and William Fox-Pitt in eventing. Despite these and other strong results in national and international competitions, there is no room for complacency.
"There are tough challenges ahead, in particular making the most of our last opportunity to achieve Olympic qualification for our jumping team at the European Championships in Aachen.
"For those like me who remember the amazing scenes in London 2012 where our athletes and horses achieved medal success for Team GB beyond all expectations, Rio 2016 is a daunting prospect.
"We know it is often harder to stay at the top than get there, and other nations have already raised their game as they seek to establish their place in the history books."
2012 medal count: 4 (1 silver, 3 bronze)
Olympic bronze medallist Beth Tweddle's verdict: "Since London 2012, success has continued to build over a wider spectrum. Going into London there were a few names in contention for medals but now more names have emerged. The team has got so much depth.
"Max Whitlock has had a great couple of years, winning two world silvers, and Louis Smith is back in action - he's got the experience at the highest level.
"Rebecca Downie won the European title so she knows what it takes to be at the top. Then you've got the youngsters: Claudia Fragapane was the golden girl at the Commonwealth Games - there are great medal chances for her - and Giarnni Regini-Moran was the star of the Youth Olympics with three gold medals.
"On the girls' side, the USA team are always top-class - Simone Biles is in a league of her own. On the men's side, China, Japan and the USA will be strong. Gymnastics is all about what happens on the day, but Team GB would love to replicate what happened in London - four medals - and I feel that's realistic."
2012 medal count: 9 (4 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)
Five-time Olympic champion Sir Steve Redgrave's verdict: "They're in pretty good shape, with some boats performing extremely well. There are six, seven or possibly even eight medals there for them. Their tally will be less than London but that was the best ever.
"In the year before an Olympics, the boats are usually set. But is slightly different this year because, while the men's eight is the top boat for the forthcoming World Championships, it is more likely to be the four by the time Rio comes around. Either would have a great chance of winning gold."
2012 medal count: 5 (1 gold, 4 silver)
Double Olympic champion Shirley Robertson's verdict: "The team was devastated after 2012, with most of the senior sailors leaving, and it took a little bit of time to get over that. But there is some really good talent in the team and they have really started to deliver.
"Leading the way is Giles Scott in the Finn class. He is a no-brainer for gold because he is head and shoulders above everyone else, is unbeaten for almost two years and has proved a great replacement for Ben Ainslie."
"The controversy around the water quality is something you can't understate. I've been to that venue before and I remember one guy going under the water then almost immediately being sick. The party line seems to be not to say much about it, but if I was competing I would be worried because it is difficult not to get wet when you are sailing."
2012 medal count: 3 (1 silver, 2 bronze)
Double Olympic champion Becky Adlington's verdict: "At London a lot of swimmers were ready to retire or were very young, whereas so many of the current squad are at the right age to peak in 2016, so I'm confident Rio will be an amazing Olympics.
"We could get more than three medals in Rio and we could get really good colours as well. We've seen so many impressive performances at the Commonwealth Games and then record-breaking Europeans last year. The experience of a home Games will also help many of the team.
"China and the USA are always strong in all events, but it will be interesting to see how Australia fare. They had a bit of stick for their performances at London 2012 as they did not achieve what was expected, but they are getting back to form and they are a force to be reckoned with again.
"The French gave us a glimpse of what they are capable of in London and are moving on all the time."
2012 medal count: 2 (1 gold, 1 bronze)
European Championship bronze medallist Annie Emmerson's verdict: "The biggest challenge for Alastair and Jonny Brownlee is keeping themselves in one piece. Jonny has picked up a stress fracture of the femur and Alistair had an ankle niggle this season. While it does not matter much in 2015, it will do if there is a repeat in 2016.
"Spain's Javier Gomez split the Brownlees on the London 2012 podium. He is an amazing athlete, but he will be 33 by the time Rio comes around. He is not a young guy any more.
"Vincent Luis of France is phenomenal and will be one to watch. I do not think the open-water swim in Rio will suit Mario Mola, but fellow Spaniard Fernando Alarza will be a threat.
"On the women's side, you cannot rule out there being three British medals if Vicky Holland, Non Stanford and either Jodie Simpson or Helen Jenkins are at their absolute best.
"American Gwen Jorgensen has been awesome this season - her run is so strong - while Switzerland's defending Olympic champion Nicola Spirig will be the dark horse after choosing to train and compete away from the main ITU circuit."
The 2016 Paralympic Games will start after the Olympics on 7 September 2016, with 528 medal events contested over 11 days, and UK Sport believes Team GB can better the 120 medals it won in 2012.
While surpassing that tally would be a challenge, it would not be the history-making achievement that improving on the 2012 Olympic total would be.
Both Greece and China won more medals after hosting the Paralympics, although Australia won 101 medals in Athens 2004, compared to the 151 won as host nation at Sydney 2000.


Icy conditions in Lancashire have resulted in a number of crashes on the roads including one fatal one, police said.

Officers said a woman died after her car skidded on ice on Southport New Road, Tarleton at about 05:30 GMT and crashed into a tree.
She was taken to hospital but died later from her injuries.
There have been five crashes on the M6 and one in which a man was seriously injured in Hesketh Bank.


Surrey wrapped up their first Championship win of 2016, beating Nottinghamshire by 228 runs.

The hosts declared on their overnight score of 244-5, setting Notts a victory target of 386 in 96 overs at The Oval.
Notts were 102-2 at lunch but collapsed spectacularly during the afternoon session, losing their final eight wickets in 53 minutes for just 38 runs.
Surrey spinner Zafar Ansari, who removed Jake Libby and Riki Wessels with successive balls, ended with 6-36.
Ansari's devastating spell meant Brendan Taylor's 68 from 79 deliveries was in vain for Notts, who are now level on points with Surrey in Division One.
The win also lifted Surrey off the bottom of the table above Hampshire.
Notts had looked in a good position while Taylor and opener Jake Libby, who made a patient 33 from 115 balls, were at the crease sharing a third-wicket stand of 90.
But the swift departures of Libby and Wessels started the procession of Notts wickets, with only Dan Christian (11) reaching double figures among their final seven batsmen.
Surrey captain Gareth Batty told BBC Radio London: "We've missed key moments in games at times, and we didn't miss them in this game.
"Everybody contributed and it ended up being a very good win against a very good Notts team.
"Traditionally, we're a better team in the second half of the season than in the first half. Hopefully we go back to type, play good cricket for the rest of the season and get a few more wins under the belt."


Defending champions Great Britain won silver in the Olympic team dressage, as world champions Germany claimed gold.

Media playback is not supported on this device
The British quartet - Spencer Wilton, Fiona Bigwood, Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin - were beaten into second by 3.334 points.
Germany's Sonke Rothenberger, Dorothee Schneider, Kristina Broring-Sprehe and Isabell Werth scored 81.936 points, with Britain on 78.602.
The United States won bronze, with the Netherlands fourth.
Dujardin will defend the individual title she won four years ago after qualifying for Monday's event on Valegro with the second highest individual score.
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"The last two rounds have been fantastic and it's a huge privilege to be riding alongside these guys," she said.
"We have new music for the freestyle, which will hopefully go to plan. I just want to go out there and enjoy myself and give Valegro a good time."
The 31-year-old has now won three Olympic medals - two golds and one silver.
She said: "I'm really proud and we did our best. We knew it was going to be tough to get the gold as the Germany team was really strong."
Hester and Bigwood will also compete in the individual event, after scoring the ninth and 16th highest totals respectively.
Hester, 49, told BBC Sport: "It is a very elated feeling and we fought hard for this.
"These horses have travelled halfway across the world and the fact they can perform at this level is so incredible. We're very happy with how they have gone."
Four years ago, when teams consisted of three riders, Laura Bechtolsheimer joined Dujardin and Hester to win gold for Great Britain.
As she was in London, Dujardin was again on Valegro in Rio, with Hester on Nip Tuck, Bigwood riding Orthilla and Wilton on Super Nova II.
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GlaxoSmithKline reported buoyant sales of new drugs in the three months to December, helping to compensate for declines in older medicines.

Sales rose 2% to £6.29bn in the quarter, slightly better than analysts had expected.
However, the company fell to a pre-tax loss of £416m compared with a profit of £531m for the same period in 2014.
New treatments for HIV, respiratory conditions and meningitis vaccines had sales of £682m in the quarter.
The total for 2015 as a whole was £2bn, prompting GSK to say it expected to reach its £6bn target for new product sales by 2018 - two years earlier than expected.
Sales of the older Advair respiratory medicine continued to fall and have hit profits, as did last year's $20bn asset swap with Novartis.
That deal increased the company's exposure to consumer healthcare at the expense of higher-margin pharmaceuticals.
Chief executive Sir Andrew Witty believed the shift would create a sustainable and less volatile business, but some investors have called for a sale of the non-prescription consumer healthcare business.
He has not ruled out such a move, but is seeking to increase margins in the division, which operates as a GSK-controlled joint venture with Novartis.
Last month, fund manager Neil Woodford called for GSK to be broken up, claiming its complicated structure was akin to having "four FTSE 100 companies bolted together".
It is valued at more than £70bn, making it one of the most valuable businesses listed in London.
Sir Andrew said the healthcare environment remained challenging, but that GSK was committed to its restructuring programme.
Advair was now far less important to the company than it had been, he added.
GSK shares rose 1.7% to £14.50 in afternoon trading in London.
The company said the dividend, which attracts many investors, given its healthy yield of about 6%, would be held steady during 2017.


Anne Kirkbride, who played Deirdre Barlow in Coronation Street, has died after "a short illness," her husband has confirmed.

David Beckett said his beloved wife has passed away peacefully in a Manchester hospital.
"David and the programme's cast and crew are heartbroken and deeply saddened at the loss of Anne," said a statement on the ITV website.
She had starred on the soap opera for more than 40 years.
William Roache, who played Anne's onscreen husband Ken Barlow, said: "I feel Anne's loss so personally having worked closely with her for over 40 years.
"She was such a loving and vibrant person. You always knew she was there because her laugh was never far away.
"She was an impeccable performer with superb comedy timing and an immense gift for really heightened drama.
"We had some rows over the years as Ken and Deirdre and it was wonderful to play those scenes opposite her.
"Coronation Street has lost one of its iconic characters and Anne will be greatly missed."
Executive producer Kieran Roberts said: "We know only too acutely how much Anne meant to the millions of people who watched her create the legendary character of Deirdre Barlow."
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The Welsh Government has been offered a chance to help shape the UK's EU negotiations.

A new Brexit forum bringing together the UK and devolved governments met on Wednesday.
Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford represented the Welsh Government at the meeting, attended by UK Brexit Secretary David Davis.
Mr Davis asked for the governments to present their analysis to help shape negotiation priorities.
In return, he would share the UK government's "latest thinking".
Mr Davis also offered a commitment to hold Brexit meetings monthly.
"Naturally, there are different standpoints around the table, but the meeting was constructive and amicable. We will meet regularly and share our latest thinking as the UK shapes its negotiating strategy," he said.
The new forum was set up following an earlier joint ministerial committee meeting on Brexit in October.
At the time, leaders of the UK's devolved governments were told not to "undermine" Brexit negotiations.
Mr Drakeford said: "We have to be fair that today was a genuine opportunity to put our point of view."
He said the Welsh Government needed to understand how the content of such meetings was having an influence "elsewhere".
The finance secretary said he spelled out the Welsh Government's position on Brexit, calling for "full and unfettered access" to the single market.
Last week, First Minister Carwyn Jones told the Senedd the Welsh Government "will be a reliable partner" in the committee process.
He had said it was "disappointing, and damaging to confidence, that the UK government has been unable, so far, to offer a coherent outline of its broad approach to EU negotiations".
Mr Jones added: "The excuses for not doing so are running thin, and the credibility of the UK is not helped by prevarication and, it must be said, confused and mixed messaging."


Modern Family star Sofia Vergara has retained her title as the highest paid actress on US television, according to the latest Forbes magazine rich list.

Forbes said Vergara's role as Gloria in Modern Family and some lucrative product endorsements helped her earn $43m (£32.6m) in the last 12 months.
It marks the fifth year the Colombian-American actress has topped the chart.
Forbes also said she earned more than any of her male counterparts in the past year.
The Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco was the second-highest paid actress, earning $24.5m (£18.6m).
Cuoco tied with Vergara at the top of last year's Forbes list, when both actresses earned $28.5m (£21.6m).
The Mindy Project's Mindy Kaling is the biggest climber in this year's chart. Her earnings of $15m (£11.4m) helped her to rise from eighth place in 2015 to third this year.
Mariska Hargitay, who appears in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo rounded off the top five.
Source: Forbes
This year's highest new entry on the Forbes list was Priyanka Chopra, who appears in ABC drama Quantico. She was the eighth highest earner with $11m (£8.4m).
Chopra, who is well known in India, is set to become more familiar to western audiences next year when she stars in Baywatch alongside Dwayne Johnson - the world's highest paid actor.
Scandal star Kerry Washington, Stana Katic from Castle, The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies and Vergara's Modern Family co-star Julie Bowen also featured in this year's top 10.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe believes it would be hard to find a better goalkeeper than in-form Artur Boruc.

Poland international Boruc, 35, has kept three clean sheets in his past seven appearances for the Cherries.
A run of just two defeats in 14 games has lifted them seven points clear of the Premier League's bottom three.
"I think your goalkeeper is pivotal to the success you have, whether it's the top end or the bottom of the table," Howe told BBC Radio Solent.
Boruc missed more than a month of action earlier in the season through injury, but has conceded just five goals in Bournemouth's past seven games.
"When he's on top form, I think you'd struggle to find a better goalkeeper," Howe added.
"You need one who is making saves and winning you points and I think Artur has done that in recent weeks."
Bournemouth host Arsenal on Sunday and Boruc hopes to continue his impressive run of form.
"I feel glad that we keep collecting points at the moment, that's the most important thing," he said. "Your own performance is quite important, but not as much as the team's."


The heir to the Nina Ricci perfume and fashion fortune has been convicted of tax fraud by a Paris court after hiding millions in an offshore HSBC account.

Arlette Ricci, 73, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay a â‚¬1 million (Â£720,000;$1.1m) fine.
The court also confiscated two properties worth four million euros (Â£2.9m;$4.2m).
HSBC's Swiss private banking arm is being investigated after a leak revealed large scale tax fraud.
Ms Ricci, who can appeal, was given a two-year suspended sentence on top of her one-year custodial sentence.
Her daughter, Margot Vignat, 51, was also convicted and given an eight-month suspended sentence.
Ms Ricci was accused of hiding millions of euros from the French authorities to evade tax using an offshore HSBC account.
She was ordered by the court to pay millions in back taxes for the period of 2007-2009, with the exact amount to be set at a later date.
Ms Ricci's lawyer, Jean-Marc Fedida, claimed his client had been made an example of, calling her sentence "extremely severe".
Mr Fedida said he may ask the judge to let Ms Ricci serve the sentence under lenient conditions, such as partial liberty or wearing an electronic tag.
But telephone recordings quoted in court apparently showed that the perfume heiress was aware she was breaking the law.
In one phone conversation, she said, laughing, "I believe I did the right thing and I never heard from Bercy so all is well," referring to the French finance ministry.
"Yes, inevitably, necessarily because all that is illegal anyway," she said.
Ms Ricci, who has consistently denied the accusations against her, will now have to decide whether to appeal against her conviction.
She was the first of around 50 French nationals to face trial over tax evasion in the HSBC case. Her prosecution was seen as a test case for the so-called "Swissleaks" scandal.
A list of thousands of HSBC's clients was passed to the French government in 2009 by whistleblower Herve Falciani, a former employee of the bank's private operation in Switzerland.
But the bank's tax-evasion practices didn't come to light until the documents were reported by the BBC's Panorama programme and a host of other international media outlets in 2015.
Widespread media coverage led to criminal investigations in the US, France, Belgium and Argentina but not in the UK, where HSBC is based.
The UK's HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) was given the leaked data in 2010 and identified 1,100 people from the list of 7,000 British clients who had not paid their taxes. But almost five years later, only one tax evader has been prosecuted.
In February, HSBC Group Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver admitted "unacceptable" practices had taken place at the bank's Swiss arm.


Lewis Hamilton said his preparations for the Malaysian Grand Prix have been "heavily compromised" by reliability problems with his Mercedes.

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The world champion, chasing an eighth win in nine races on Sunday, missed Friday's first session and some of the second but still set the fastest time.
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"Whenever you lose a session - and pretty much half of the second - it definitely doesn't help," he said.
"But the team did a great job to rebuild the car and that was crucial."
Despite his problems - caused by a failure in the engine's inlet system and issues with telemetry - Hamilton was 0.428 seconds quicker than team-mate Nico Rosberg.
He admitted that was "good, for sure".
But he added that he would head into final practice before qualifying on Saturday having not made any changes to his set-up, and said the balance of the car had been "quite a bit off from where I need it".
Hamilton goes into Sunday's second race of the season (at 08:00 BST) seven points clear of likely title rival Rosberg, after the Mercedes drivers finished one-two in Australia two weeks ago.
The Briton said Ferrari looked like being Mercedes's closest rivals after Kimi Raikkonen split him and Rosberg with the second fastest time and produced what appeared to be a strong race-simulation run.
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"The Ferraris look great," Hamilton said.
"It's surprising to see how good their times are. We'll see whether that continues through the weekend.
"My lap wasn't spectacular. There are some improvements I can make with the balance and the settings but they were just all brought from the last race. I'm sure we will improve it a little bit.
"I got a fairly decent lap but we haven't dialled the car in, changed the differential settings or changed the set-up at all. So there is definitely some work to do.
"My tyres seemed to be lasting quite well and hopefully it will be good this weekend."
Malaysian GP practice results
Malaysian GP coverage details


Gabon goalkeeper Didier Ovono has announced his retirement from international football aged 34.

The K.V Oostende keeper won 106 caps over 14 years and was part of Gabon's Africa Cup of Nations squads in 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017.
Announcing his decision to the French news website Jeune Afrique, the Port-Gentil native said: "After 14 years as an international I think the time has come to step aside from the team, and allow younger players to come through.
"I have played at four Africa Cup of Nations finals and I have more than 100 caps. I have given a lot to my country, which has also given me a lot. It was an honour to play for Gabon."
Ovono was handed his international debut against Algeria in 2003 and was his country's first choice at four Nations Cup tournaments.
He admitted that his decision to represent Gabon at the 2017 tournament on home soil cost him his place at Belgian club Oostende - where he is out of contract at the end of the season.
"I don't have a club for next season, so my immediate priority right now is to find another team.
"I decided to play in the Nations Cup this year as it was unthinkable not to play this tournament with Gabon in my country.
"The officials of Oostende did not want me to go, but I went anyway. It happened that the other goalkeeper at Oostende [Silvio Proto] was injured.
"So the club signed another goalkeeper while I was away on international duty, which was logical.
"I returned from Gabon and went from number one to third choice; it was difficult and frustrating to watch the games from the bench or the stands.
"At 34 I think it will be impossible to make both my country and club happy, so at 34 it is better to retire and find a club where I can focus on a club career."
Ovono who began his professional career in Gabon has previously played in El Salvador, Portugal, Georgia and France.


A cyber security expert says Northern Ireland could be at a disadvantage because pupils are not studying the best courses available.

It is estimated that cyber crime costs the local economy more than Â£100m a year.
David Crozier from Queen's University in Belfast said there was a potential difficulty if the Computer Science GCSE is dropped by schools.
He was speaking to the BBC's Inside Business programme.
"There is potentially a difficulty coming up in terms of the GCSEs, where some of the schools will drop the English GCSE in Computer Science which would be a more technical course than the CCEA (Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment) ICT GCSE we have locally," he said.
"That would be disappointing for us as a university in terms of people coming in with a stronger Computer Science background."
Last month, the two largest English GCSE exam boards said they would no longer offer GCSE courses in Northern Ireland.
The change will come into effect for pupils beginning GCSE courses in September 2016.
About a quarter of courses taken by pupils in Northern Ireland are taken through the AQA and OCR exam boards.
There will be more on this story on Inside Business at 13:30 GMT on Sunday.


Barry Manilow is out of surgery and is "doing well" after being rushed to hospital "due to complications from emergency oral surgery".

The 72-year-old singer was taken to a Los Angeles hospital after playing a sold-out show on Wednesday evening.
In a message posted on Manilow's Facebook page, his management team said it was due to complications arising from an operation he had on Monday.
His next immediate tour dates have been postponed.
"For the next 48 hours, Manilow has been instructed not to talk, sing, or rap," an updated posting on the singer's Facebook page said.
However, those hoping to see the performer will be able to use their tickets for the rescheduled shows.
"Ticket holders should retain their existing tickets for redemption on the night of the new date," the Facebook original statement said.
Manilow is due to attend Monday night's Grammy awards - it's not yet known whether he will still be able to make it.
The New York-born singer, who rose to fame in the 1970s, has a global fanbase. He is best-known for hits Mandy and Copacabana (At the Copa).
He has suffered a series of health scares over his career - having to undergo regular dental treatment after a benign tumour ruptured in his mouth in 1986.
One Last Time, One Last Tour is his final live tour, taking in the UK and North America. It is scheduled to end on 23 June at the O2 Arena in London.


Pakistan's plan to set up military courts to try terror suspects is prompting concerns about civil liberties in the aftermath of the Peshawar school massacre.

Leading human rights campaigners and intellectuals have questioned the safety of such a process, saying it represents a failure of civilian government and is fraught with risks.
The move is the latest in a range of measures announced following the 16 December Taliban attack. Militants killed at least 152 people, most of them children, at the Army Public School - the nation watched the slaughter unfold live on its television screens.
A country that had grown accustomed to violence was shaken like never before during years of insurgent attacks. Pakistan has lost about 56,000 lives in terrorism-related incidents over the past decade, according to the South Asia terrorism portal.
Within hours of the massacre, the army was stepping up its offensives against the militants and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had lifted an eight-year moratorium on the death penalty.
A number of people convicted of terrorism have since been executed, despite appeals by human rights groups concerned at the safety of convictions.
Pakistan's parliament is expected to approve the military courts for two years, as part of an unprecedented response by the authorities.
The military have long denied nurturing some militant groups on the country's soil, particularly in the loosely-controlled tribal areas in the north-west of the country.
Political parties have consistently failed to agree in recent years on how to deal with the insurgents.
Democracy and human rights campaigners have been demanding stern action against extremism and militancy for years, but they have deep reservations about what they are calling a "knee jerk" reaction by the military.
At the top of the list of campaigners' concerns are the military courts which are to try terror suspects in the future.
"The military courts are being created because the army chief of staff is angry that an army school has been attacked," constitutional expert Abid Hassan Minto said.
"We understand his anger but then the question arises that why didn't we see that anger when more than 100 minority Shia Hazaras were killed in Quetta or when 127 Christian men, women and children were killed in a church in Peshawar last year?"
He was among about 80 activists who gathered at the South Asian Free Media Association's office in Lahore at the weekend to voice their concerns at recent developments, including a 20-point National Action Plan against terrorism announced by the government at the behest of the military. Journalist and writer Ahmed Rashid said the issue was transparency.
"How secret are these courts going to be?" he asked.
"The evidence which will be presented by the prosecution, will that be available to everybody attending the court and to the lawyers on both sides?
"If the evidence is just going to come from the intelligence agencies, can anyone stand up and question it? We need more clarity on these issues."
The government has sought to assuage such concerns.
"Pakistani soldiers are also tried in these courts, they are not only for foreigners," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a recent press conference.
"There are proper systems and principles. God forbid, military courts are not kangaroo courts, where whoever appears is hanged or punished, so all misconceptions about these courts must be done away with."
Some mainstream political parties initially opposed the idea of military courts on the basis that these courts could be misused  to pressurise political opponents and could lead to human rights violations, particularly in Baluchistan province where some nationalist parties are fighting for separation from Pakistan.
But last week army chief General Raheel Sharif categorically made it clear that opposition to military courts was simply not an option.
The very next day an all-parties conference was chaired by the prime minister, at which the top political leadership extended its support for constitutional amendments which provide legal cover to military courts for two years.
Prime Minister Sharif made it clear that there was no room for debate on these amendments in parliament, owing to its urgency, and that the government and political leadership had already examined it.  The bill has been tabled and is expected to be passed within days.
Many analysts believe the military courts represent the failure of a civilian government unable to fulfil its democratic responsibilities and gradually ceding its mandate to the army.
"It's very unfortunate that there is only one organised institution in this country and that is the military. They can do their homework and come up with solutions, whether we like them or not," political commentator Najam Sethi said.
"Our civil leaders do not have the capacity, ability or willingness to present any alternative viewpoint, and that is the terrible part of this situation."


TalkTalk and its Tiscali UK subsidiary have been fined £3m for incorrectly billing more than 65,000 customers for services they had not received.

The largest fine regulator Ofcom has given to a telecoms firm, it follows an investigation into the two businesses that started in July 2010 as a result of more than 1,000 complaints.
Ofcom said the fine reflected "the seriousness" of their actions.
TalkTalk said it was "disappointed at the scale of the fine".
The company, which bought Tiscali UK in 2009, blamed the billing errors on the amalgamation of the Tiscali UK business.
It has since paid more than £2.5m in refunds and goodwill payments to affected customers.
As a result of this action, and other measures by TalkTalk to rectify the problems, Ofcom said the fine was less than otherwise might have been the case.
In its ruling, Ofcom said TalkTalk and Tiscali UK wrongly issued bills to 62,000 customers, in particular those who had closed accounts, between 1 January and 1 November 2010.
Ofcom said it contacted both businesses in November 2010, setting them a deadline of 2 December 2010 to "take steps to sort out their billing problems".
However, while it said TalkTalk and Tiscali UK "did take some important steps to comply with the rules", almost 3,000 more of their customers were still incorrectly billed between 2 December 2010 and 4 March 2011.
TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding said: "Last year I recognised that we needed to invest in our systems, processes and customer services and we are making significant progress.
"Ofcom receives three times fewer calls about TalkTalk than they did at the height of the Tiscali integration, and our five million customers are more loyal and more satisfied than they were 12 months ago."
In April this year, Ofcom said that TalkTalk was the most complained about telecoms firm for landline and broadband services.
TalkTalk phased out the Tiscali UK brand in 2010, switching users to services offered under its own name.


A court in the Philippines has found a US marine guilty of killing a transgender woman.

Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted of killing Jennifer Laude in a hotel room in Olongapo city, north-west of Manila, last year.
Pemberton will face between six and 12 years imprisonment.
The case has strained ties between the US and the Philippines, a former US colony where the Americans have a significant military presence.
The marine was on leave in Olongapo on 11 October 2014, after joint military exercises with the Philippine army, when he met Ms Laude in a bar.
Police said they left together and checked into a hotel, where she was found dead the next day, apparently strangled and with her head inside the hotel toilet.
Pemberton had previously testified in court that he had attacked Ms Laude after he realised she was transgender, but said she was still alive when he left the room.
The prosecution had argued Pemberton should be convicted of murder, but the court downgraded this to homicide.
Pemberton was also ordered to pay at least 4.5 million pesos ($95,350; Â£63,140) to Ms Laude's family.
Ms Laude's sister, Malou, told Reuters news agency: "We expected a murder conviction but instead got homicide. We are not content with the decision."
Pemberton will be temporarily detained in a Philippine jail until the Philippine and US governments agree on where he should be held during his prison term.
The case has led to calls from left-wing groups for the Philippines to end its military agreements with the US.
Under the agreement, the Philippines can prosecute US military personnel but the US retains custody over them "from the commission of the offence until completion of all judicial proceedings", the Associated Press reports.


Manchester United have signed Newport County's 17-year-old defender Regan Poole for an undisclosed fee.

The Wales Under-17 international joined United after passing a medical at the club's Carrington training ground.
Poole, who had been on trial at United and Liverpool, was the subject of a £60,000 bid plus add-ons from Championship side Hull.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for him to progress at such a magnificent club," Newport boss Terry Butcher said.
"In the past few days a number of clubs have shown an interest in Regan, but as soon as Manchester United came in there was only really going to be one outcome."
Butcher says Poole has also achieved something the former England star did not.
"He's still very young at 17. He's got the perfect stage to go and perform and the perfect place to learn," said Butcher..
"He'll love it, I'm sure.
"I nearly made it to Manchester United, but never quite so he's done something I've never done, which is brilliant."
The fee for Poole is believed to be £100,000 in a deal that could rise to £400,000.
Butcher says some of that cash will go into his playing budget.
And Kevin Feeley's departure by mutual consent also leaves Butcher with "a nice little pot to work with".
Brighton had also shown an interest in signing the young centre-back, who became Newport's youngest ever player in 2014 when he made his debut against Shrewsbury Town aged 16 years and 94 days.
Meanwhile, Newport rejected an improved £65,000 transfer deadline-day offer from Championship club Burnley for teenage striker Aaron Collins.
Newport have signed former Dagenham & Redbridge centre-back Matt Partridge on a deal until the end of the season.
Defender Kevin Feely has had his contract terminated by mutual consent. The 23-year-old is to return to his native Ireland after deciding not to pursue a career in football.
"The decision I made was a completely personal one, based on where I wanted to go with my life, at the moment I don't think football is where I want my future to be," he said.
For all the latest on transfer deadline day, click here.


Ever since US President Donald Trump declared that he would withdraw the US from the landmark Paris climate change agreement, much has been made of the fact only two other countries have not signed up.

They are Syria, and the Central American nation of Nicaragua - but the US is very different from either.
Syria has been embroiled in a civil war for six years, leaving 300,000 dead, so it is perhaps understandable that it did not participate in talks.
Nicaragua's reason for refusing the deal, though, is not because it wanted to burn more fossil fuels, but because the agreement did not go far enough.
The country already gets more than half of its energy from renewable resources, and plans to bump that up to 90% by 2020.
A 2013 World Bank report labelled it "a renewable energy paradise", with extensive opportunity for geothermic, wind, solar and wave energy.
When the Paris deal was being negotiated, Nicaragua said there was a total mismatch between what the document said was needed to protect the climate, and what signatories proposed to do about it.
The goal of the Paris agreement is to restrict temperature increases by 2100 to a maximum of two degrees Celsius more than before the global industrial age - and aim for 1.5C if possible.
But Paul Oquist, negotiating for Nicaragua in 2015, said he had reservations about the level of commitment made by individual countries in their pledges.
They would not restrict average temperature rises to 2C, let alone 1.5C, he said - and much more action is required.
"These voluntary commitments don't work," Mr Oquist told Democracy Now after the negotiations.
"Right now we're looking at a three-degree world, and that is catastrophic and unacceptable."
That is in sharp contrast to Donald Trump's speech announcing he was pulling out of the agreement - in which he said the Paris agreement was a deal that aimed to hobble, disadvantage and impoverish the US, to the benefit of other nations.
Not so, Mr Oquist argued at the Paris summit - developing nations are being held equally accountable for climate change - something he argued was unfair.
Historically, the US, Europe, and more recently China account for almost half of the world's carbon emissions.
The US outputs some 5.2 million kilotons of carbon dioxide every year. Nicaragua, by contrast, generated about 4,569.


Lawyers for Fifa presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein say they have made an official request for Friday's election to be suspended.

Prince Ali, 40, is unhappy with voting arrangements and has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
The Jordanian wants transparent voting booths to ensure the election is fair and open, but world football's election commission rejected the request.
Cas says it will rule on Prince Ali's appeal by Thursday morning.
Prince Ali is one of five contenders looking to succeed Swiss Sepp Blatter, who is stepping down after 18 years.
He is up against:
Ali wants to ensure delegates do not photograph their ballot papers when they choose the next president.
He believes transparent booths would prevent them from doing so and thus help delegates avoid coming under pressure to produce evidence of their vote to interested parties.
However, Fifa rejected his proposal and will instead ask voters to leave their mobile phones outside while choosing between the five candidates.
Prince Ali's lawyers want "a fair electoral process" and think Fifa's request for voters to leave their phones behind when they vote is "not sufficient".
They claim Fifa's "behaviour" denies "any right to a fair and transparent voting process" and are now hoping Cas will back them.