A former nationalist MP and a prominent Orangeman are to serve on the next Parades Commission in the North, it emerged tonight.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prime Minster Tony Blair will have to face up to the reality that a majority of unionists want a new settlement in Northern Ireland, they were told today.

NATIONALISM in the North has always had a habit of renewing itself.

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.

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.

Democratic Unionist MP Nigel Dodds and Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly today became the first two Assembly members to be elected in Northern Ireland.

Gunmen who shot a west Belfast man dead at his home were drunk when they did it, the victim’s mother said today.

A republican group today threatened to kill staff at two Belfast hospitals.

Hardline unionists have dismissed the IRA’s latest act of decommissioning as "a stunt". Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said: