They enjoyed a long, fruitful if occasionally fraught relationship. One concentrated on securing international support for their cause while the other — Mallon — concentrated on Belfast and Lon don, Dublin too.

By playing number two to John Hume, Seamus Mallon may not get the place in history he deserves, writes Fergus Finlay

Irish officials were told that an increase in haulage traffic across the border would provide opportunities for republican paramilitaries through the lapse of official customs controls.

The IRA were determined to gain control of an increase in haulage business between the Republic and Northern Ireland, in a bid to extort protection money, declassified state papers show.

It is ironic but deeply valuable that the majority of the books and films, irrespective of source, dealing with the North’s Troubles have a common theme.

Former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon has said that Northern Ireland Secretary of State Karen Bradley is not the right person for the position.

A week ago this morning, Ireland woke up to shocking news.

Just over two years ago, when Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said it would be a mistake to allow the local crocodiles to hope that their well-honed appetites might be satisfied because, no matter how much they were given to eat, they would want more she revealed far more than she intended.

The incumbent had said he had to fly to Northern Ireland last May as the Northern Irish Police Service could not provide the required security by road.

Macbeth and Hamlet were mentioned by the main protagonists, but in truth, it was far closer to A Christmas Carol.

The Good Friday Agreement brought the framework for peace, but it hasn’t been an easy ride. Political Correspondent Fiachra Ó Cionnaith looks back on the key moments of the first 20 years of the peace process.

An IRA group which was killed during an ambush by the SAS in the Co Armagh village of Loughgall in 1987 was responsible for up to 50 murders, secret government documents have revealed.

Six wrongfully imprisoned for Birmingham pub bombings ‘offered nothing but false hope, promises’

A man who lost money in a betting shop and was observed kicking a dog as he emerged into the street, was ordered by a judge to pay the dog-owner €250 in compensation for his action.

In the light of the newly-released State papers, Ryle Dwyer suggests there may be some deluded expectations of voter resistance to Sinn Féin.

The spoiler-free guide to the things appearing on your television box tonight.

I am sure no-one, and not least the Deputy First Minister, wants to go down in history as the organ grinder’s monkey and, for that reason, I found it astonishing that Martin McGuinness reversed Sinn Fein policy and announced without consultation of any kind that he would agree to shrinking the structures of the Northern Assembly.

Ian Paisley has been praised as the politician who finally cemented Northern Ireland’s peace process.

The IRA does not bear responsibility for the wrongful incarceration of the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six and others for republican terrorism, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has said.

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL was in Dublin last week, flogging a book, revisiting the past, and standing by an old pal.

A retired Fianna Fáil senator yesterday appeared, along with two others, at a sitting of a District Court on a charge of demanding money by menaces.

MARGARET Thatcher wasn’t easy to deal with, but her contribution to the peace process through the Anglo-Irish Agreement deserves acknowledgement, according to former foreign affairs minister Peter Barry.

A HAULAGE firm, in which an examination of tachograph records revealed some of its lorry drivers drove continuously for 20 hours in a single day, has been fined a total of €3,000 in a prosecution taken by the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie could face a second challenger after South Belfast MP Alasdair McDonnell said he is being urged to step forward.

POLITICAL leaders and politicians singled out Dr Garret FitzGerald’s role in the peace process and his contribution to reconciliation in the North.

THE latest disastrous MRBI opinion poll for Fianna Fáil has it just two points ahead of Sinn Féin when it comes to voter preferences now, just months ahead of the coming general election.

IT’S easy to be snide about RTÉ’s Ireland’s Greatest Figures: far too many people born in the 1970s, a blank as far as the world of science is concerned, very few people who have actually made any money, no one of an identifiably unionist persuasion, and so on.

COME back Queen Elizabeth, all is forgiven.

COULD Northern Ireland decide the course of British politics tomorrow, after all?

The Government paid SDLP chiefs top-class expenses and mileage during the 1970s, it was revealed today.

Blackrock College 27 Ballymena 10

Ballymena 5 Galwegians 19, Eaton Park

The former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his British counterpart, Tony Blair, have both been conferred with honorary doctors at Queens University in Belfast.

Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair will be honoured by Queen’s University Belfast today for their role in the North's peace process.

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern are being honoured by Queen’s University Belfast for their role in the North's peace process.

The Ireland Sevens team began its charge towards the goal of qualification for the IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens with a positive runner-up spot in the Denmark Sevens competition at the weekend.

The Rev Ian Paisley must be given credit for finally delivering power sharing in the North, Senator George Mitchell said today.

It has been a long apprenticeship. However today Peter Robinson finally got the chance to take over as leader of the North’s most successful political party, the Democratic Unionists, after 28 years of being the Rev Ian Paisley’s understudy.

The Good Friday Agreement has delivered partnership between those who supported it and those who opposed it, one of its architects claimed tonight.

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

The Democratic Unionists were tonight urged not to break a deadline for securing policing and justice powers for the Northern Ireland Assembly just for the sake of it.

JUST a couple of weeks ago, Munster’s second string side went to Shaw’s Bridge in Belfast and crushed a weakened Ulster opposition.

THE North was in a virtual political vacuum throughout 1977, as there was no single recognised political leader within either the Nationalist or Unionist communities. The Dublin government had a twin policy designed primarily to ensure the British protected the rights of the minority in the North and encouraged agreement on a power-sharing basis.