An Orangeman on Northern Ireland’s Parades Commission was today urged to resign after fresh questions were raised about his appointment.

THE British Government was urged yesterday by the SDLP not to give in to Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist’s “grubby” demands on demilitarisation.

A senior member of the Democratic Unionists today denounced the appointment of former Assembly member Monica McWilliams as the chief human rights commissioner in Northern Ireland as crass.

A former Stormont Assembly member vowed today to make a Bill of Rights her top priority as the new head of the North's Human Rights Commission.

A former MP today gave the Democratic Unionists a clear run in a bid to wrest away a safe Ulster Unionist seat in the general election.

Bertie Ahern was today urged to recall a forum of political parties on both sides of the border to resolve the crisis over the future of the IRA.

Tony Blair could boost the peace process in the North by lifting the ban on Catholics becoming King or Queen, it was claimed today.

A day before Northern Ireland’s Assembly Election, Sinn Féin candidates were getting twitchy.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were today due to consider their next move in the peace process as hardline unionists continued to make the running in the Northern Ireland Assembly election.

IAN PAISLEY’S Democratic Unionists last night surged to the top of the North’s election poll to threaten the future of the Good Friday Agreement.

Ian Paisley’s hardline Democratic Unionists tonight surged to the top of the Northern Ireland’s election poll to threaten the future of the Good Friday Agreement.

Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists were tonight leading David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists in the battle for Northern Ireland Assembly seats.

Plans to restore a power sharing government in Northern Ireland tonight faced an indefinite delay as hardline unionists who rejected the Good Friday Agreement strengthened their vote in the Assembly Election.

Senior unionists Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds of the DUP and Reg Empey of the UUP have been elected on the first count.

David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists and the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists are running neck-and-neck in a tight Northern Ireland Assembly Election contest, an exit poll claimed today.

It was a cruel winter’s day as Northern Ireland’s voters went to the polls to elect their next Assembly.

MARTIN McGuinness is no daw. But he was taken aback by a quick witted reporter on UTV’s Assembly election special last Thursday who asked (a la JFK) not when he had left the IRA, but why?

Britain's Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy was today hitting the election campaign trail in Northern Ireland in support of his sister party, Alliance.

With the Government assuming next year’s EU presidency, there’s been a call to raise funds for the establishment of a peace and reconciliation programme.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was today due to hear more demands for an assembly election to take place soon in Northern Ireland.

The release of the latest IRA statement would give Northern Ireland’s parties a basis for moving the peace process forward, an Assembly member with the Women’s Coalition suggested today.

US President George Bush was today expected to call on the IRA to fully disarm, at the annual St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington.

Northern Secretary Paul Murphy was warned today that restoring the North’s Assembly voting system next month could seriously damage plans to bring back devolution.

Many Americans believe the IRA has the capacity to make “a significant move” in the peace process which could break the political deadlock at Stormont, a nationalist leader claimed today.

President George Bush’s special adviser on Northern Ireland Richard Haass today urged “bold thinking and bold acting” in a bid to move on the Northern Ireland peace process.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy tonight expressed hope that the province’s politicians could overcome their differences and restore devolution.

The future of the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries was today set to fall under the spotlight of round table talks at Stormont.

Suggestions that Fianna Fail may contest elections in Northern Ireland were not helpful, the Labour Party leader claimed today.

As the political parties in Northern Ireland pored over the census results, unionists and nationalists clashed tonight over the significance of the religious breakdown shown in the figures.

THE US special envoy to Northern Ireland said he was optimistic that a breakthrough could be made in the peace process in advance of next May’s elections.

Loyalists will only play a part in talks to resolve the problems in the Northern Ireland peace process if they are fully inclusive, Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine warned today.

The head of the North's police anti-child abuse unit tonight called for tougher measures to prevent paedophiles preying on children.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble was accused today of pursuing a policy aimed at driving Sinn Fein out of the Stormont power-sharing government.

Community representatives must help end the serious rioting which saw four police injured in Belfast city centre, a senior PSNI officer said tonight.

The pro-agreement parties in the North have agreed to meet more regularly in an attempt to manage difficulties which emerge in the Irish peace process.

Sectarian violence on the streets of Belfast must be addressed by the British and Irish governments and parties who support the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said today.

Hundreds of extra millions have been ploughed into Northern Ireland’s health service but patients have yet to see the benefit, it was claimed tonight.

The Northern Assembly has passed a motion urging the British Government to co-operate fully with the independent inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974.

The Women’s Coalition today attacked the British government and main political parties for the lack of female representation on the new Northern Ireland Policing Board.

UUP leader David Trimble will have to wait until tomorrow to find out if he can be re-elected as the North’s new First Minister after a unionist petition halted the vote today.

Alliance leader David Ford was today preparing to be the back end of a ‘‘pantomime horse’’ to get David Trimble re-elected Northern Ireland First Minister.

The Northern Assembly is expected to reinstate David Trimble as First Minister later today thanks to the re-designation of the non-aligned Alliance Party.

Parties supporting the Good Friday Agreement will stand together to secure the future of the political institutions in tomorrow’s crucial Assembly vote for Northern Ireland’s First and Deputy First Ministers, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness has claimed.

The Women’s Coalition has suggested that it might designate itself as a unionist party to help UUP leader David Trimble get re-elected as the North’s First Minister on Friday.