Almost one third of those who want to join are identified as Catholic, equating to 2,158.

Records from his office reveal he was concerned about the deployment of the UDR in Catholic areas.

A document about a British ambassador’s holiday was deliberately leaked by gardaí and ended up in the IRA’s possession, newly declassified state papers have revealed.

The Irish Government raised concerns over claims made by a British Conservative minister that some lawyers in Northern Ireland were “unduly sympathetic to the IRA”, weeks before Pat Finucane was killed.

John Finucane was eight when loyalists murdered his father in the family home. Three decades later the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast is juggling his search for answers with a law practice, the challenges of Brexit, and the captaincy of Lamh Dhearg in tomorrow’s Antrim SFC final.

Nigel Carr loved going to Dublin. If Northern Ireland in 1987 was reduced from the friendliest of communities into an angry parochial backwater, then Dublin was an escape from all that, Grafton Street with its bustle and noise, Baggot Street with its pubs.

Irish writer Ronan Bennett has teamed up with Drake to resurrect gritty drama Top Boy, writes Ed Power.

Sometimes great change, maybe the greatest of change, comes in a quiet, almost unspoken way — certainly without the triumphalism that hinders bridge building.

We take a trip down memory lane and check out what happened on this day in years gone by by looking back at some Irish Examiner front pages and highlighting other events which went down in history across the world.

We take a trip down memory lane and check out what happened on this day in years gone by by looking back at some Irish Examiner front pages and highlighting other events which went down in history across the world.

“If I have one regret,” my friend Patricia said, “it’s that I lived in Paris in the summer of 1968, and it all went over my head.”

We take a trip down memory lane and check out what happened on this day in years gone by by looking back at some Irish Examiner front pages and highlighting other events which went down in history across the world.

A 60-year-old man has been charged with the 1994 murder of Francis Damien Kerr in Newry and membership of a proscribed organisation, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has said.

After what seems like an eternity, season one of Derry Girls is now available to watch on Netflix.

When, in the early 1960s, James Baldwin wrote The Fire Next Time to try to explain racism, he could not have imagined that half a century later it would remain relevant.

My first summer job, at the age of 16, was as a shop girl in the Belfast branch of the fashion chain Wallis, writes Kate Thompson

Journalist Diarmaid MacDermott covered the 1988 trial of Dessie O’Hare when he was jailed for 40years for the kidnap of dentist John O’Grady in 1987. Here he remembers the dramatic sentence hearing.

The family of a man shot dead in 1976 say they have been failed by the Irish Government and the Gardaí.

Before former PSNI officer Drew Harris was appointed Garda commissioner last September there was, at best, a mixed reaction from within the force to the idea of an outsider leading it — especially one who had not navigated the rites of passage studded along the road from Templemore to the Phoenix Park.

The cost of funding public tribunals and commissions of inquiry into wrongdoing by state agencies and individuals will reach close to €500m by the end of this year.

Taoiseach Charles Haughey told British prime minister Margaret Thatcher that the Irish government was ‘constantly ballyragged’ by the British and received ‘no credit’ for the work they had been doing, writes Seán McCárthaigh

It was the day after the first RTÉ Claire Byrne debate on the abortion referendum, which had turned into a shouting match: The anti-abortion side had hijacked the programme.

New Garda chief Drew Harris said he will not pursue more money from the Government until he first examines how the force is spending its current “very big” budget.

Drew Harris is quietly spoken. That much has been made clear by people close to him, writes Cormac O'Keeffe

As he prepares to swear allegiance to the Irish State and take over as Garda commissioner, are there conflicts of interest surrounding former PSNI deputy chief Drew Harris, asks Security Correspondent, Cormac O’Keeffe

I am a lifelong hurling fan, the finest game ever invented, as well as a supporter of our gardaí, and proud of my several relations who served in it, including my late father.

With the weights of issues facing the force, and its reluctance to accept outside influence, the former PSNI officer has a tough job ahead, says Cormac O’Keeffe

The PSNI police chief appointed as the next Garda commissioner said his focus would be on protecting the vulnerable and keeping people “on the island of Ireland” safe.

Drew Harris has been named as the new Garda Commissioner.

“After 30 years, it’s time to tell us what you know.”

It’s not everyone that has the President of Ireland attend their funeral, but Dr Maurice Hayes, who passed away at the age of 90 a couple of days before Christmas, lived enough for several men.

In the midst of the power-sharing difficulties in the North, Ryle Dwyer argues that people should remember how such problems were initially resolved.

Margaret Thatcher’s chief legal adviser believed prosecutions would “go as high as chief superintendent” within the RUC over an alleged shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland, newly released secret files reveal.

An IRA group which was killed during an ambush by the SAS in the Co Armagh village of Loughgall in 1987 was responsible for up to 50 murders, secret government documents have revealed.

Martin McGuinness personally set up the rendezvous which led to the brutal murder of a suspected IRA informer, the Government was told in 1987.

The British PM hit out over cases that collapsed in the Irish courts, writes Seán MacCárthaigh

Gerry Adams was working on a peace strategy in early 1987, State papers have revealed.

NEXT weekend three Irish teams play three English teams in the European Champions’ Cup. Ulster travel to London to play Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop, Leinster go to Sandy Park to play the Exeter Chiefs and Munster will again welcome Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park.

American director Alex Gibney was stunned by what he found for his documentary on the Loughinisland killings. It will be shown at Cork Film Festival, writes Richard Fitzpatrick.

Early education is seen internationally as one of the keys to breaking the cycle of poverty — wouldn’t you think that a country that has one-in-nine of its children living in consistent poverty would finally start to put a value on the things that can break that cycle, writes Fergus Finlay.

The body set up to plot the direction of policing will meet this week, amid claims that the Government is unsupportive of its work.

A prominent Belfast victims campaigner has implored the Northern Ireland Secretary not to lift the ban on the Red Hand Commando (RHC).

Few things are more heartbreaking than hearing of the suicide of a young person, as I did today.

A former IRA hunger striker is making a name for himself as a playwright, writes Colette Sheridan

Latest: Fianna Fáil has again expressed its desire to see Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan resign her post.

A senior IRA figure who became one of Britain’s most prized spies in the North has been linked to at least 18 murders.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of the Irish public to An Garda Síochána. It’s not all CSI and DNA-profiling. A significant number of crimes are solved thanks to the information given by the person on the street, writes Clodagh Finn

Derry City football club lost a lifelong supporter with the passing of Martin McGuinness who once went to quite extraordinary measures to help the club in a time of difficulty.