Northern Ireland

Troubles' veterans on both sides deserve immunity from prosecution

13 July 2021 8:40 pm

The recent decision by Boris Johnson’s government to put a five-year time-bar, save in exceptional circumstances, on the prosecution of British…

Portrait of the week: A bombshell by-election, Scotland bans Mancunians and China staffs its space station

26 June 2021 9:00 am

Home The government contemplated its promised Planning Bill, blamed for contributing to the astonishing victory for the Liberal Democrat Sarah…

I’m calling my removal from office ‘the great betrayal’

26 June 2021 9:00 am

I’ve always maintained I go to Fermanagh for sanity, and after the past few months, I need a return to…

The protocol may be Boris's greatest masterstroke

16 June 2021 4:52 pm

The jibes thrown at Boris Johnson over his unhappiness with the Northern Ireland protocol — based on the obvious observation…

Boris Johnson's Northern Ireland problem

14 June 2021 12:08 am

In an at times grouchy press conference, Boris Johnson tried to calm the row over the Northern Ireland protocol. The…

Credit: Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

Why this G7 summit matters more than most

12 June 2021 9:00 am

It’s risky planning a trip to the British seaside at any time of year. But if the weather forecast is…

It’s time to revisit the Northern Ireland protocol

12 June 2021 9:00 am

Britain has already seen two ‘Brexit days’ — when it formally left the EU on 31 January 2020 and the…

Joe Biden doesn't understand Northern Ireland

11 June 2021 12:38 am

Even a pessimist could be forgiven for being surprised by Joe ‘I’m Irish’ Biden’s ham-fisted intervention in the ongoing row…

Give the people what they think they want

5 June 2021 9:00 am

I have a mean streak. Perhaps my cruellest urge is to give people what they claim to want. When political…

Could Sinn Fein become the largest party in Northern Ireland?

25 May 2021 4:00 pm

In 2022, a year after its centenary, there is the chance that Northern Ireland could end up with a nationalist,…

The two halves of Ireland can’t be forced together

22 May 2021 9:00 am

Last week, Edwin Poots was elected leader of the DUP. You will have read all about him. I have. You…

What’s next for the Union?

8 May 2021 9:00 am

The Union faces two simultaneous challenges in Northern Ireland and Scotland that both look set to worsen in the coming…

Portrait of the week: Covid retreats, raves resume and a £165,000 squid

8 May 2021 9:00 am

Home ‘I think we have got a good chance of being able to dispense with the one-metre-plus from 21 June,’…

Who would want to replace Arlene Foster?

29 April 2021 3:06 am

Arlene Foster has announced that she will be standing down as DUP leader on the 28 May and First Minister…

Sinn Fein's hollow 'apology' for Mountbatten's murder

20 April 2021 3:14 am

Prince Philip’s death presented Sinn Fein with a particular challenge, given that the IRA murdered his beloved uncle. ‘I am…

Why Sinn Fein can't really apologise for the IRA's atrocities

19 April 2021 10:00 pm

What are we to make of Sinn Fein’s latest experiment with the language of regret when it comes to the…

The Northern Ireland Protocol is untenable

16 April 2021 11:00 pm

The process that delivered us the Northern Ireland Protocol already seems to have been rewritten in official memory. It suits…

Portrait of the week: Vaccine passports, Northern Ireland riots and a cocaine-smuggling kayaker

10 April 2021 9:00 am

Home The government sketched a scheme for a coronavirus passport, or ‘Covid status certification’, to be tried out at the…

Northern Ireland's sink estates are fertile ground for fundamentalists

9 April 2021 12:14 am

Northern Ireland is routinely voted one of the happiest places to live in the UK. A few weeks ago, a…

Is Biden turning on Brussels?

18 March 2021 6:16 am

The Joe Biden administration, headed up by a proud son of Ireland, has spent St Patrick’s Day briefing reporters in Washington…

The chilling rise of ‘IRA TikTok’

6 March 2021 9:00 am

The chilling rise of ‘IRA TikTok’

It is time to make friends with the EU

20 February 2021 9:00 am

On Monday morning, Clément Beaune, Emmanuel Macron’s Europe Minister, clipped out the section of his media interview criticising Britain’s vaccination…

The Northern Ireland protocol problem

13 February 2021 9:00 am

Ursula von der Leyen now admits that she overreacted in the EU’s vaccine row with the UK. She has spoken…

John DeLorean: man of mystery – and full-blown psychopath

30 January 2021 9:00 am

DeLorean: Back from the Future was one of those documentaries — for me at least — that takes a story…

Humiliating the IRA was a fatal mistake

14 November 2020 9:00 am

It was said that Reginald Maudling, as home secretary, once boarded a plane in Belfast and immediately requested a stiff…