Arlene Foster has long been disliked by Sinn Féin, but the breakdown in government brings an election that could be the most bitter in many years, writes Brian Murphy

Violence has a very firm underpinning within the Islamic theological tradition, writes TP O’Mahony

A brave step towards peace or grudging acceptance that military defeat was inevitable – the IRA’s historic ceasefire of 1994 still sharply divides opinion in the North 20 years on.

The British Government is facing mass legal action over alleged collusion with loyalists in murders in the North during the 1970s.

A Democratic Unionist councillor has appeared in court in the North charged in connection with a comment she posted on Facebook.

A controversial Democratic Unionist councillor has issued an unreserved apology for a post on Facebook that endorsed a fictional account of a massacre of senior Sinn Féin members.

I Hear the Sirens in the Streets

One thousand people are expected to mark the murders of two Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers in a 1998 IRA bomb attack during a rally in Belfast city centre on Saturday.

Northern Irish writer Adrian McKinty has set his detective fiction in the milieu of the Troubles, says Declan Burke

The MasterChef Ireland final runs over two nights, Wednesday and Thursday, on RTÉ Two. The remaining three contestants are Nicha Maguire, Tamarin Blackmur and Terry Lyons.

More than 3,500 people who died as a result of the conflict in the North were being honoured today.

THE findings of the Historical Enquiries Team in the North into the murders of three members of the Miami Showband carried out by the UVF in 1975 is a step along the path to justice and closure for those killed and bereaved (Spectre of collusion in Miami Showband killings, December 15).

Cold case detectives investigating the Miami Showband massacre could not rule out state collusion in the murders, families of the victims have said.

PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Martin McGuinness said he did not kill or shoot anyone when he was a member of the IRA between 1970 and 1974.

A former IRA man who attempted to murder a soldier in a 1981 ambush has been jailed for 20 years.

A British soldier killed in a landmine blast in Afghanistan has been laid to rest beside his baby daughter in the North.

A soldier from 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment who was killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan has been named by the UK's Ministry of Defence as Lance Corporal Stephen McKee.

* January 6: Three members of UDR killed by an IRA landmine near Castlewellan, Co Down.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams clashed with Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson after he wore a wristband supporting the Army at a meeting with families bereaved by British troops, it emerged today.

A cigarette butt found at the scene of a policeman’s murder in the North almost 30 years ago carries the DNA of the man accused of the shooting, a court heard today.

A man will appear in court today charged with the murder of a policeman shot dead by the IRA in the North almost 30 years ago.

A man was questioned today about the murder of a policeman in the North almost 30 years ago.

The UK government must not allow unionists in the North to block a deal on devolving policing and justice powers to the region’s Assembly, Sinn Féin said today.

Two former members of the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment have been warned about a threat to their lives from the Real IRA, according to a local DUP Assembly member.

There's a row in the North over who is entitled to carry guns for their personal protection.

A Belfast dissident republican became the first person to be convicted by a Dublin court today for the murder of a man in Belfast last year.

The PSNI has uncovered a security-force link to the murder of a Co Donegal teenager in Belfast 35 years ago.

The lives of more than 3,500 people who died during the Northern conflicts will be remembered during a service later today.

A woman whose partner was killed in a dissident republican bomb attack has been denied a British Army pension because the couple were not married.

THE North was in a virtual political vacuum throughout 1977, as there was no single recognised political leader within either the Nationalist or Unionist communities. The Dublin government had a twin policy designed primarily to ensure the British protected the rights of the minority in the North and encouraged agreement on a power-sharing basis.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg today ruled that allegations of security force collusion in the loyalist murders of eight men in South Armagh in the 1970s had not properly been investigated.

A motion was tonight passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly condemning the display of imitation weapons during a Sinn Féin sponsored rally through the centre of Belfast.

Criticism of delays in appointing a Victims’ Commissioner for the North is political point-scoring, the government said today.

The GAA tonight vowed to probe allegations of sectarianism in their sports after a Protestant hurler quit the sport.

A PROTESTANT GAA hurler and footballer has quit over sectarian abuse by rival players.

The political progress that has been achieved in the North would not have been occurred without the British Army, a senior unionist claimed today.

Sinn Féin tonight condemned an attack on a former Ulster Defence Regiment soldier after a concrete block was thrown through his car window.

Sinn Féin has condemned the arrest of an independent republican candidate outside the Assembly election count centre in Omagh yesterday.

A former Irish rugby international has quit Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists, he revealed tonight.

THE Oireachtas report citing widescale collusion between British state forces and loyalist murderers should not only compel our Government leaders to pursue the British state through the European courts in order to get it to reveal its murky past — they should also demand the withdrawal of the decorations given by Queen Elizabeth to the RUC and the UDR.

KAY’S TAVERN IN DUNDALK

A US academic today spoke of his shock at the extent of apparent security force collusion in loyalist paramilitary murders in the North.

Queen Elizabeth II is in the North today for a parade to mark the disbandment of the Royal Irish Regiment's three locally recruited battalions.

As of today, there are no soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment patrolling streets in the North.