“You don’t win nations cups without jumping clear rounds and we didn’t jump enough of them,” said Michael Blake after he had seen the Irish show jumping team he managed fall short of repeating last year’s success in Ocala, Florida on Sunday evening.

Ireland has two show jumping teams in action this weekend for the first of this year’s nations cup fixtures. Michael Blake takes charge of affairs for the five-star meeting in Ocala, Florida, while Taylor Vard will be overseeing matters at Abu Dhabi’s five-star contest in the UAE.

Paul Kennedy is in line for his biggest team challenge to date when Ireland take on seven opponents in Friday’s important Division 1 Nations Cup of Italy in Rome.

Police in the North are investigating the sudden death of a 15-year-old girl.

Nations cups dominated last week’s show jumping headlines, but the international limelight over the next few days switches to the relatively new, mixed-nationality format that is the Global Champions League (GCL), writes Mike Dunne.

It was Bertram Allen’s turn to fly the flag for Ireland yesterday at Olympia International Horse Show in London, as he scorched to victory in a speed contest.

British Army bomb disposal experts are examining a suspected explosive device found under a soldier’s car in the North.

ShowjumpingIreland (SJI) has negotiated insurance cover that will see no increase in its premium, according to chairman Tony Hurley.

Ireland eventing coach Nick Turner is hopeful the good times will continue this weekend as he leads his charges in the Eventing Nations Cup final in Boekelo, the Netherlands.

Three fugitive republicans previously wanted by police in connection with conflict-related investigations were confirmed as “cleared” at the start of March, Sinn Féin claimed.

Britain’s Phillip Miller, riding Caritiar Z, provided the only clear in the Hickstead Derby yesterday to deny Ireland its second successive win in the famed competition, as four faults left Tipperary’s Trevor Breen equal second on the one-eyed Adventure De Kannan.

Sinn Féin veteran Francie Molloy insisted his party colleague Martin McGuinness would be a hard act to follow after winning the Westminster seat vacated by Stormont’s deputy First Minister.

Voters in Mid Ulster go to the polls today in a Westminster by-election contest that has become heavily associated with a historic Troubles murder.

The race to succeed Martin McGuinness as MP for the Mid Ulster constituency has been confirmed as a four-way fight.

A British pilot jailed in Africa after he discovered the victims of an apparent massacre has described his joy at being transferred to house arrest.

Storm-force winds of up to 100mph are poised to hit Scotland today, forecasters have warned.

The family of murdered solicitor Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane have said they are still recovering from the humiliation of a meeting with the British Prime Minister.

The Parades Commission in the North will be reappointed in January if local politicians fail to reach agreement on controversial marches, Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson said today.

Dissident republicans were blamed today after a suspected mortar bomb was fired at a police station in the North.

Sensitive security files containing background checks carried out by the police on 60 people have been found in a skip in central Belfast.

DENIS LYNCH is adamant Ireland can avoid relegation from the Meydan Nations Cup Series.

IRELAND’S show jumpers did enough yesterday to move from the bottom of the Meydan Series, when fifth in the Dutch nations cup at Rotterdam.

IRELAND’S show jumpers put in a battling performance to finish third in the nations cup at Lummen, Belgium, yesterday, despite elimination for pathfinder Cian O’Connor and Splendor.

Some unionist criticisms of the proposed Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland are factually incorrect, the Human Rights Commission claimed today.

Politicians in the North are to debate controversial proposals to give the families of everyone killed during the Troubles £12,000 (€13,255), it was announced tonight.

The Ulster Unionist Party tonight agreed to form an electoral pact with the UK's Conservatives.

Sinn Féin and the DUP appear to be at loggerheads over the deal announced earlier this week to end a long-running dispute over the devolution of policing and justice powers.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will meet the North's political leaders today as they appeal for funding to support the deal agreed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin.

Relations between the DUP and Sinn Féin do not appear to be getting any better, with the unionist party launching a scathing attack on its government partners at Stormont today.

POLICE have come under petrol bomb and blast bomb attack in the north.

The North's two main Unionist parties must work together at future elections to maximise their strength, a senior DUP figure has claimed.

The panel set up to deal with the North’s troubled past is hopelessly divided, the DUP claimed today.

The body which adjudicates on contentious parades in the North is today looking for a new member after the Law Lords declared the appointment by Peter Hain of one of its members was unlawful.

Francie Molloy, a Deputy Speaker of the Northern Assembly, has been named in the House of Commons by a DUP MP as an ex-British agent suspected of involvement in the murder of a former RUC reservist.

A cross-border tourism agency must dramatically improve the way it markets the North abroad as a holiday destination, ministers on both sides of the border were urged today.

Insurance company Hibernian Group has appointed Donal Byrne as its chairman.

A senior Sinn Féin figure is being named as a spy who allegedly conspired in the murder of a former police officer in the North.

The Government was urged today to simplify the process of securing compensation in Northern Ireland for Orange halls targeted in arson and other attacks.

Rapists are walking free from prison in less than five years in the North, it emerged today.

A former Sinn Féin mayor of Derry is to join the party’s first three Assembly representatives on the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble is to join the Conservative Party in the House of Lords, it emerged tonight.

The Democratic Unionist Party has unveiled its ministerial team for the new power-sharing Executive in the North.

The DUP and Sinn Féin were making significant gains in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections.