Former submariner Steve Aiken has been confirmed as the new Ulster Unionist Party leader.

It is not necessary to be a pessimist much less a fatalist to feel we are living through a moment of great change, a moment of great reversal.

It would be the first December British election in 100 years and there would be a five-week campaign by parties up to polling day.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar nailed British prime minister Boris Johnson to a form of Brexit that is about as good as we could expect, writes Fergus Finlay

The DUP continues to play a pivotal role in Brexit as UK and EU negotiators attempt to strike a deal.

Emergency financial measures to support Brexit-hit businesses and communities will form part of the budget, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has confirmed.

The Government’s decision to meet Gerry Adams after the IRA ceasefire showed “indecent haste”, British government officials have said.

The device exploded close to Wattle Bridge at around 10.35am after bomb disposal experts had defused a larger device in the area.

However, other political parties in Northern Ireland expressed concern at Mr Johnson’s election as Conservative Party leader, particularly in terms of the potential implications for Brexit.

A leadership challenge in the Conservative Party will have little impact on the Brexit stalemate, Tánaiste Simon Coveney says.

Paddy Barnes is considering calling time on his boxing career following a shock defeat by Texan Oscar Mojica in Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theatre on Sunday.

Simon Zebo is happy that rugby does not have a racism problem, despite the abuse he suffered at the hands of a lone Ulster fan during a Champions Cup game at Kingspan Stadium earlier this month.

Fine Gael has been accused of having a “poke in the eye of unionists” after the party’s outspoken support for the Brexit withdrawal deal.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has for the first time admitted a hard border will be unavoidable if rebellious Brexiteers destroy the Brexit deal of British prime minister Theresa May and the EU, saying “in a no-deal scenario it would be very difficult to avoid a hard border”.

One of the by-now-standard responses to British inconsistency on Brexit is exasperated impatience.

We weren’t just ending the conflict, we were also putting in place arrangements to replace the Anglo-Irish Agreement, writes then junior minister Liz O’Donnell

The principle of consent to constitutional change in Northern Ireland has been overlooked by the Irish Government, the Ulster Unionist Party leader said.

William Whitelaw, former British deputy prime minister and the first Northern Ireland secretary, believed power-sharing in the region could lead to a united Ireland, newly declassified State papers reveal.

The announcement that Airbus is taking a majority stake in Bombardier's C-Series jet project has been welcomed by politicians in the North.

The Ulster Unionist Party has been fined for failing to declare £12,000 of its spend on last year's Assembly election.

The DUP is expected to prop up a government set to make key decisions affecting the future of Europe. What can we anticipate from the Northern party, asks Mary C Murphy

Catholics living in Northern Ireland have called for a return to direct rule to end the political chaos, a senior British Conservative MP has said.

The DUP has accused Sinn Féin of not being serious about wanting to reach an agreement to restore the Stormont government.

The new UUP leader has dismissed calls for a single unionist party.

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has reiterated that he believes reconciliation is the next vital stage of the peace process.

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

A political inferno around a green boiler scheme is to remove Arlene Foster from her once-seemingly unassailable job as Stormont First Minister. 

Political leaders in the South expressed their grave fears for the future of the Northern Assembly following the decision by Martin McGuinness to resign as deputy first minister.

The winner of the controversial multi-billion euro Project Eagle Nama deal paid two firms heavily involved in a previous bid stg£15m for help "accessing" Finance Minister Michael Noonan and "the Northern Ireland executive".

Northern Irish farmers will be the hardest hit by the Brexit fallout given the agriculture sector’s dependence on EU customers and the potential loss of billions of euro in grants, according to a leading economist.

The SDLP could be poised to leave the North's Executive and take a place on the opposition benches.

The Northern Ireland Assembly is to have its first formal opposition since the Good Friday peace accord after the Ulster Unionist Party announced it would not take a seat in the powersharing government.

As Peter Robinson prepares to step down as Northern Ireland’s first minister and leader of his Democratic Unionist Party, the race is on to succeed him.

ENOCH POWELL, the staunchly Conservative British politician, once reflected that “all political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure”. Peter Robinson is about to become an honourable exception.

Martin McGuinness has expressed concern that “state agents” intent on creating problems for Sinn Féin were involved in the two murders that have rocked powersharing at Stormont.

Crunch talks on the North's deteriorating political situation will take place in London and Dublin today.

Senior members of the Ulster Unionist Party have voted to withdraw from the North’s power-sharing government over claims the Provisional IRA (PIRA) still exists.

A crunch meeting where senior members of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) will vote on whether to walk away from Northern Ireland’s powersharing government over claims the Provisional IRA (PIRA) still exists has begun in Belfast.

A 25-year-old man has been arrested by detectives investigating the murder of a former IRA commander in Belfast.