Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was tonight told he was being delusional if he believed republicans were on course to achieve their goal of a united Ireland.

Stormont First Minister Ian Paisley today insisted he was not opposed to the idea of a Civic Forum.

The North's new power-sharing Cabinet will have its first meeting since the return of devolution today.

Staff at a high school in the North that saw one of its pupils stabbed with a penknife during a schoolyard fight tonight expressed their sadness at the incident.

The SDLP’s call for an all-Ireland police intelligence agency was described today as the most blatant attempt to politicise policing.

Animal welfare officers believe they may have broken up a puppy farm in the North during a joint operation with the police.

BRITISH government plans to disband three Northern Ireland-based battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) in a major shake up of security could cost the North’s economy €88 million (£60m) every year, it was claimed.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and Democratic Unionist Assembly member Diane Dodds were today under fire for failing to attend a debate with other west Belfast election candidates on paramilitaries.

The British general election campaign in Northern Ireland will change up a gear today as parties begin to nominate candidates for the province’s 18 Westminster constituencies.

The IRA tonight was considering whether its armed struggle could continue after Gerry Adams’ appeal for the organisation to fully embrace politics.

The IRA has expelled three of its members over the murder of a man outside a Belfast bar, it emerged tonight.

The Government will come under fresh pressure today to give Sinn Féin a heavy financial penalty when Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy announces what sanctions will be imposed for the IRA’s audacious Northern Bank robbery.

SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams was last night standing by his party's view that the IRA was innocent of the Northern Bank raid.

President Mary McAleese was at the centre of a sectarian row tonight after claiming Protestant children in the North were taught to hate Catholics in the same way Nazis despised Jews.

A family of five targeted in a petrol bomb attack in Northern Ireland have been subjected to weeks of intimidation, it was claimed today.

Politicians and community leaders are setting up a group to liaise with police in the Waterside area of Derry after the attempted murder of a young man this week.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were urged today to “call the Democratic Unionists’ bluff” by triggering power sharing moves in Northern Ireland.

Democratic Unionist leaders the Rev Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson were urged today to face down any internal dissent over their bid to strike a deal to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

Police investigating the 1987 IRA Remembrance Day bomb in Enniskillen were today facing questions from a daughter of one of the victims about their hunt for the bombers.

Sinn Féin must address the future of the IRA if it is to bridge its huge credibility gap, the party was told today.

US Presidential candidate John Kerry needs to get real about the political process in Northern Ireland, he was told today.

A memorial to one of Northern Ireland’s best loved sportsmen was vandalised today.

Car thieves brutally beat a man in his home near Belfast today after he refused to hand over the keys to his vehicle.

THREE men including a Dubliner walking down the street were shot in the legs in punishment-style attacks in the North.

A man was shot and injured in a drive-by gun attack in Northern Ireland today.

A Democratic Unionist Assembly member was accused today of having a “sick sense of humour” as the row rumbled on over a controversial cinema advert against the euro.

A Democratic Unionist Assembly member today accused Education Minister Martin McGuinness of ‘‘naked sectarianism’’ in seeking to move his department’s headquarters from North Down.

The Government was today accused of holding a ‘‘seven-hour terrorism fest’’ with its state burial of 10 IRA men executed by the British authorities more than 80 years ago.

300 people gathered in the centre of Omagh for a short service of remembrance today.

Democratic Unionist Assembly member the Rev William McCrea said it was clear from the latest de Chastelain report that the IRA had no intention of disarming.