A row has broken out between the Financial Services Union (FSU) and Bank of Ireland over plans to close eight of the bank’s 36 branches in the North.

The Bank of Ireland is closing eight branches in the North.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

Detectives in the North investigating the disappearances of missing schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson were at a disadvantage because of the delay in reporting her missing, an inquest has heard.

Up to 50 schoolchildren have been taken to hospital after a bus crash.

Thanks to Conall O’Fatharta’s article highlighting the white elephant that is the National Adoption Contact Preference Register.

Tóchar — Walking Ireland’s Ancient Pilgrim Paths

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has accused unionist political leaders of hypocrisy in dealing with illegal marches and attacks.

A Unionist MEP from Northern Ireland has called on the European Commission to take action against Republican parades.

The violent expression of indignation by loyalists and Orange Order members at the sight of the Lord Mayor of Belfast Máirtín Ó Muilleoir visiting the Shankill Road is nothing more than a grotesque display of raw sectarianism.

It is tragic that so many people in the North, from both communities, seem so ready, so determined to mark events or celebrate loyalties in ways that almost inevitably provoke another round of the danse macabre that ensures that age-old divisions — if not hatreds — are perpetuated.

Hundreds of people have protested at a controversial IRA parade in the North.

A Republican parade due to take place later in County Tyrone will commemorate IRA members, including two killed by their own bomb.

Up to 56 PSNI officers were injured when serious loyalist rioting engulfed Belfast city centre in violence linked to a contentious republican parade.

Serious rioting engulfed Belfast city centre tonight as police were attacked by loyalists protesting ahead of a republican parade.

A republican parade commemorating dead IRA men in a Co Tyrone town should be called off, Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said today.

Police in the North were accused of making a “sensationalist” arrest yesterday after detaining a hardline loyalist Belfast city councillor over remarks she made about a disputed parade.

A controversial Sinn Féin-backed march commemorating two IRA bombers in the Co Tyrone town they were intending to target has been restricted by the Parades Commission.

A controversial Democratic Unionist councillor has issued an unreserved apology for a post on Facebook that endorsed a fictional account of a massacre of senior Sinn Féin members.

A Sinn Féin-backed parade to commemorate two IRA bombers in the Co Tyrone town they were intending to target is insensitive and inappropriate, Stormont’s First Minister has said.

Forensic experts today carried out a detailed examination of a derelict flat once occupied by a man cleared of murdering a missing schoolgirl in Northern Ireland.

In the North, a woman has been killed in a single-car crash near the Co. Fermanagh border early this morning.

An inquest into the death of a schoolgirl who was last seen with a convicted child killer may not start for two years, a court has heard.

THE Valvoline Irish Forest Rally Championship could be decided in tomorrow’s Omagh-based Bushwhacker Rally, the penultimate round of both the Irish series and the Hankook Northern Ireland Rally Championship.

Police in the North have pledged to do everything they can to recover the body of a murdered schoolgirl as fresh searches for her remains began 17 years after her disappearance.

A fire has damaged a listed mill near Strabane, Co Tyrone.

IT doesn’t take long for Darach MacDonald, author of Blood & Thunder: Inside an Ulster Protestant Band, to make a provocative comparison.

WHILE many farmers and indeed business owners will no doubt be glad that the Climate Change Bill has been put on ice until after the forthcoming general election, no one could accuse the Irish state of being soft on eco issues.

Northern Ireland has endured its coldest night on record.

Fresh searches for a schoolgirl who went missing in the North in 1994 are to begin in the New Year, an inquest heard today.

SHAY GIVEN has revealed that the could have played for Northern Ireland – not that the IFA ever came looking for him or, for that matter, would have received a positive response if they had.

The widow of a fireman from the North faces losing thousands of pounds in a dispute over his pension, it was claimed today.

A SKYDIVER who survived a 100ft plunge when his chute malfunctioned has been found dead.

Icy conditions and road closures in Co Donegal have prompted gardaí in the county to advise motorists to stay at home this morning.

Police in the North are appealing for information on the whereabouts of a missing Derry woman.

A SKYDIVER who miraculously cheated death when he plummeted to the ground as he tried to land in the Californian desert was yesterday flown back to Northern Ireland by air ambulance.

The North's Police Ombudsman has accused the police of failing to properly investigate the disappearance of 15-year-old Arlene Arkinson in 1994.

Two further people have been arrested in connection with the attempted murder of an off duty police officer in Co Tyrone, police said today.

The people behind a booby-trap bomb attack on a police officer in the North are wedded to the politics of the dinosaur, a senior member of Sinn Féin claimed today.

An off-duty police officer has been seriously injured in what's feared was a dissident republican car bombing in County Tyrone last night.

A man was injured after a reported explosion involving a car in the North, police said tonight.

The Co Tyrone home of convicted rapist Eamon Foley has been badly damaged in a malicious overnight fire.

The PSNI is today appealing for motorists who witnessed a fatal crash in Strabane in Co Tyrone in the early hours of this morning to come forward.