Northern Ireland

Twenty-five years after the IRA hunger strikes, Colum McCann remembers the hot summer the ten men died and questions the prevailing silence about the anniversary

The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report into paramilitary activity in the North has said that the IRA is committed to "following a peaceful path" and has "expended considerable energy to refocus the movement on its objective". The tenth IMC report is the most positive to date.

The DUP in Killarney spoke softly, but ultimately, it will be Ian Paisley and the unionist people who decide on the powersharing issue. By Eoin Ó Murchú

The constant topic of political discussion in the North is how to get a power-sharing Assembly up and running again so that local politicians can have a say in government decisions. But if they really want their hands on the levers of power, they should forget the Assembly and apply for jobs with Price Waterhouse Coopers. The pay's better. There's no need to tramp the laneways and dangerous boreens looking for endorsement from the public. Plus, there's lashings and leavings of food and drink, trips to the opera and tickets to concerts by the Corrs.

Tensions within the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the largest paramilitary group in the North, reached crisis point this week with senior members making a bid to oust Andre Shoukri, leader of the north Belfast wing of the group.

Following the publication of a report and commentary by us on 22 December last on the significance of the "outing" of Denis Donaldson as a British agent, Sinéad McSweeney Director of Media and PR, with the Police Service of Northern Ireland responded. She wrote:

The murder of Denis Donaldson is a further macabre twist to the sabotage of a constitutional settlement. By Vincent Browne

A new aid package is due next month to save the North's economy. But many think the economy will never be able to compete with the South while still a part of the United Kingdom. Colm Heatley reports

The British government's plan to push ahead with a limited inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finuca...

Prominent loyalists arrested during the PSNI raid on a Belfast pub last week were released on bail, despite continued sectarian violence and criminality on the part of the loyalist paramilitary groups. By Colin Heatley