A NATIVE Irish apple tree will be planted tomorrow on the banks of the Scariff river by Belfast author and former hostage Brian Keenan.

All sides involved in the creation of the Good Friday Agreement should feel proud of it, Bertie Ahern said tonight.

Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Some of the events of the past year were unimaginable 10 years ago.

“THINGS fall apart, the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,” — well the fallout from the Belfast Assembly poll is not quite as bad as WB Yeats’s words suggest, but he was spot-on about the middle ground parties going south.

Voters in the North have elected their first ever ethnic minority candidate, with the Alliance Party's Anna Lo winning an Assembly seat in South Belfast.

Democratic Unionist deputy leader Peter Robinson and Alliance deputy leader Naomi Long were today elected as the first members of the new Northern Assembly.

The North’s Assembly Election candidates will learn what the electorate has in store for them today as counting gets under way in 18 constituencies.

The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin will today focus on the controversial issue of water charges in the North as the Assembly Election enters its final stage.

Nominations for the North's Assembly Elections will close today, effectively sounding the starting pistol in the race for Stormont seats.

The Progressive Unionist Party is to field three candidates in the March 7 Northern Assembly Election, it was confirmed today.

The North's political leaders were today urged to hold their nerve and leave their constituents the legacy of a fully-functioning devolved Assembly.

The loyalist Progressive Unionist Party will today choose David Ervine’s successor as leader.

The Progressive Unionist Party in the North is to choose a new leader next week.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams attended the funeral of former loyalist paramilitary David Ervine in the North today.

Hundreds of mourners are expected to attend the funeral of the late PUP leader David Ervine in Belfast today.

Supporters of the Belfast soccer club Cliftonville are being criticised today for disrupting a minute's silence for the late PUP leader David Ervine last night.

Politicians from all sides have been paying tribute to Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine, who died in hospital yesterday after suffering two heart attacks and a stroke over the weekend.

THE passing of David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, leaves a vacuum in loyalist politics that will be hard to fill.

Northern Secretary Peter Hain led tributes to Progressive Unionists leader David Ervine, who died in hospital today.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today said that deceased Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine played a valuable role in turning loyalism away from violence.

Green Party Leader Trevor Sargent TD has paid tribute to David Erivne, who died in Belfast today.

David Ervine, leader of the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party in the North, died in hospital today.

Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine died today in a Belfast hospital aged 53, according to a family friend.

The leader of the North's Progressive Unionist Party is fighting for his life in hospital after he suffered a reported two heart attacks and a stroke at the weekend.

Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine remains in a critical condition in the Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast tonight.

David Ervine, one of the North's leading loyalist politicians, was tonight fighting for his life in hospital.

A Northern Assembly motion condemning plans by the British government to introduce equality legislation for gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the New Year fell today after a dead heat.

One of Hollywood's biggest stars put two of the North's politicians in front of the camera on a whistle-stop visit to Belfast.

The North may not get the same level of British government focus when the next Prime Minister takes over, secretary of state Peter Hain warned today.

A party linked to the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force is to meet the North's Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), it was revealed today.

THE Ulster Unionists are facing fresh demands to sever their ties with a loyalist party after the father of a murder victim claimed he had received death threats.

Eyewitness claims that the Ulster Volunteer Force was involved in extortion and other criminal activities were today cited by Ulster Unionist MP Lady Sylvia Hermon as a reason for her unease over her party’s decision to link up with the Progressive Unionists in the Stormont Assembly.

FOLLOWING the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the participants in the multi-party negotiations dedicated themselves to the “achievement of reconciliation, tolerance, partnership, equality, mutual respect and the vindication of the human rights of all”.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has agreed to meet the father of a loyalist murder victim whose death is at the centre of a major collusion inquiry, it was revealed tonight.

Democratic Unionist MEP Jim Allister was accused of shameless opportunism today after he attacked rival Ulster Unionists for joining forces at Stormont with a loyalist politician.

Another Ulster Unionist has defected to the UK's Conservatives, it emerged tonight.

An Ulster Unionist councillor is defecting to the Conservatives in protest at the party’s deal with the Progressive Unionist Party, it emerged today.

Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey today vowed to stick with his strategy of persuading loyalist paramilitaries to abandon violence, despite criticism from a senior colleague.

PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde is expected to face questions about the attempted murder of leading loyalist Mark Haddock when he appears before the North's Policing Board today.

The Ulster Unionist Party is coming under pressure today to sever its links with the Political Unionist Party.

A loyalist paramilitary chief is fighting for his life today after assassins struck near north Belfast.

A loyalist paramilitary chief was fighting for his life tonight after assassins struck near north Belfast.

COMMENTING on DUP criticism of the proposed Northern Assembly link between the UUP and David Ervine’s PUP, Peter Molloy (Irish Examiner letters, May 19) reminds us of the actions of DUP leader Ian Paisley in assembling 500 men in military formation holding aloft gun licences in 1981.

The leader of the Ulster Unionists has confirmed that his party has been in touch with other assembly members about further increasing the strength of the Ulster Unionist group at Stormont.