Becoming an actor took me by surprise.

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Caitlin Doyle Her contribution is entitled ‘Hungry Hills: Coming of Age as an Irish American poet’.

First volume of Margaret Thatcher’s authorised biography is predictably flattering, but not a hagiography, says Shaun Connolly

MARGARET THATCHER was the most forceful and influential post-war British prime minister.

Robin Morgan worked with iconic photographer Terry O’Neill on his book of James Bond images, writes Alan O’Riordan

JUSTICE powers are handed back to Stormont today almost 40 years after the British government controversially removed them from Northern Ireland’s local ministers.

The Saville report could face further delay if David Cameron becomes the next British prime minister, it was claimed tonight.

THINKING of the behaviour of the Cork train drivers this week brought Rudyard Kipling to mind. It was he who first coined the term “power without responsibility”.

The life and times of one of the most divisive figures in the history of Irish politics will be remembered at an event in Sligo tonight.

IT CAME as no great surprise that Charlie McCreevy praised Margaret Thatcher in a speech to the Association of European Journalists in Dublin.

ARE the British learning, or is the charging of the British soldiers with war crimes in Iraq just a cosmetic exercise? In this country it seemed the British did not learn from their mistakes.

EDWARD HEATH, the British Prime Minister who took Britain into Europe, died last night. He was 89.

ONE of the more surprising features of the newly-released State papers was the eagerness of British Prime Minister Ted Heath to establish a power-sharing executive in the North with an all-Irish dimension.

ONE of the earliest architects of the northern peace process warned 30 years ago that Democratic Unionist Party leader Dr Ian Paisley would be a formidable barrier to progress and urged that he be excluded from negotiations.

THE more things change, the more they remain the same. If ever a cliché applied to politics, it aptly encapsulates the political scenario in Northern Ireland.

Former British Prime Minister Ted Heath today bluntly denied that the Bloody Sunday killings were planned and covered up by the British government.

THE re-partition plan presented to Ted Heath in July 1972 attracted more attention than any of the other documents released this week.

Former British Prime Minister Ted Heath has been granted permission to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday inquiry when it moves to London.