The rush to establish the State’s Policing Authority has left important questions about how it will work go unanswered, reports Cormac O’Keeffe

Acting Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has said an internal survey of frontline gardaí shows they were "hurting" from the succession of controversies battering the force.

A former police watchdog has said there is strong evidence An Garda Síochána has a blue wall which acts as a cover-up for wrongdoing.

The office of the Garda Ombudsman should be given more powers “as a matter of urgency”, including to investigate the commissioner of the force, according to the North’s first police ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan.

A crudely assembled bomb has exploded at a GAA ground in the North but caused only minor damage, police said.

Relatives of the Omagh bomb victims are to meet Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter tomorrow to press home demands for a cross-border inquiry into the 1998 atrocity.

Loyalist leader Mark Haddock was kept apart from 13 co-accused as one of the biggest paramilitary murder trials in decades began in the North today.

A loyalist leader and 13 of his alleged associates are due in the dock today as one of the biggest paramilitary murder trials in decades begins in the North.

The North's former Police Ombudsman Nuala O‘Loan is to oversee development of NUI Maynooth, it was revealed today.

A leading SDLP Assembly member ousted from the party over his calls for nationalist unity has been reinstated, it was confirmed today.

THE current crisis in the Catholic Church and the state is also a time of real opportunity, former Ombudsman of the PSNI, Nuala O’Loan, said yesterday.

Northern Ireland Assembly member Declan O‘Loan was today suspended from the SDLP after he called for a united nationalist party.

The Pope’s letter on how senior Catholic clergy in Ireland mishandled cases of clerical child abuse was today branded as weak.

A stable future for the North would be the best monument to Cardinal Cahal Daly, mourners at his funeral heard today.

A long-standing religious imbalance within the North's Civil Service (NICS) has been effectively reversed following a 10% rise in the proportion of Catholic employees in just over a decade, new figures confirmed today.

The home of the North's former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan was targeted in a sectarian attack today.

Police Special Branch in the North was aware of intelligence information on the Omagh bomb soon after the atrocity, the former ombudsman claimed today.

The North's Finance Minister was accused of moral blackmail today in a row about civil service back pay claims.

Former North Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan and High Court judge Mr Justice Treacy have been appointed as Visiting Professors at the University of Ulster’s School of Law, it was announced today.

A loyalist leader will appear in court today charged with gunning down a rival during a bloody paramilitary feud in the North.

Legal advice should be sought in a wrangle over next year’s Executive budget, it was claimed tonight.

Pressure is growing today for a public inquiry into the Omagh bombing after it was claimed British intelligence chiefs recorded the bombers mobile phone calls on the day of the attack.

Ireland’s new Roving Ambassador, Nuala O’Loan, is to travel to south-east Asia, it emerged today.

TO a sea of Albanian and American flags, Prime Minister Hasim Thaci called the republic of Kosovo into being last Sunday week, setting off a diplomatic firestorm, raising Russian- backed Serbian ire and sparking fears that minority ethnic groups from Spain to China would have a new basis for resistance.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will meet the former Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, in Dublin later today.

THE United States government was warned that it should look to the experiences of Northern Ireland and learn that the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camp will serve as a recruiting ground for al-Qaida in the same way that internment without trial in the North led to a growth in the IRA.

A former Canadian Mountie who headed the body to oversee the new policing arrangements in the North takes charge today of the office set up to investigate complaints against the service.

There is no evidence the security forces in the North colluded with loyalist killers in the murder of two Catholic brothers in Armagh 14 years ago, the Police Ombudsman said today .

Investigators who cleared the RUC of having any advance knowledge of a loyalist paramilitary pub massacre were hampered by missing paperwork, a Northern Ireland Assemblyman who triggered the probe claimed today.

Crucial intelligence was wiped from a computer and police officers were uncooperative during an investigation into the first fatal shooting carried out by the PSNI, the Ombudsman said today.

POLICE failed to properly deal with death threats made against Catholic solicitor Rosemary Nelson before she was murdered, a report revealed yesterday.

The North's Police Ombudsman has concluded that the RUC failed to properly investigate threats made against Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson.

THE Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman has warned that gardaí may be reluctant to give evidence against their colleagues when under investigation.

Incoming Northern Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson should carry out a root and branch overhaul to weed out those allegedly leaking sensitive security force material, a retired policeman said today.

The Norths's police ombudsman’s office has been cleared of leaking confidential information to the media.

JOURNALIST Robert Fisk recently revealed details of the medical reports on the brutal killing by British soldiers of a Basra hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa.

A former Canadian Mountie is to become the new policing Ombudsman for the North.

Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan reveals today how the emotional strain of attacks on her children almost forced her from the post.

NORTHERN Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan has revealed how she was on the verge of standing down after her children were subjected to violent attacks.

SURELY your columnist Steven King (Irish Examiner, January 31) does not expect us to believe there was no collusion between British state forces and loyalist paramilitaries during the Troubles in the North.

THE much publicised report from the North’s police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan on collusion between British forces, including the police, and unionist paramilitaries has awoken many in this State to the reality that was the nationalist nightmare for decades.

A BELFAST friend was murdered by paramilitaries a few years ago. He died an hour before we were due to meet for a drink. No-one was ever charged, let alone convicted. Nor will they be.

FROM comments about the Nuala O’Loan report one would think that collusion between the RUC and murderers was a particularly British phenomenon in which the police essentially gave a licence to an informant to murder people and engage in criminal activity as part of his supposed cover.

IT is both ludicrous and hypocritical to hear Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern call on the British government to strengthen the powers of Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan in the wake of the appalling collusion she uncovered between the security forces in the North and loyalist paramilitaries.