The first Northern Assembly election count results from west Belfast have confirmed Sinn Féin had pulled off impressive vote management in the constituency, with the party occupying the top five positions.

WITH the latest imprimatur of the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) conferred on the IRA, combined with the decision of Sinn Féin to support the police and the criminal justice system in the North, it was hardly unexpected that it was described as the removal of the “final impediment” to devolution.

EAMON de VALERA once pronounced, with a refreshing lack of modesty, that when he wanted to find out the views of the Irish people he only had to look into his own heart.

Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen is due to hold separate meetings in Dublin later today with Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness and Northern Secretary Paul Murphy.

A bid by the Democratic Unionist Party to challenge the legality of the election of David Trimble as the North’s First Minister has been rejected in the High Court in Belfast.