Protesters at the Irish language rights demonstration in Belfast on  Saturday: Thousands feared further delays to the legislation. Photograph: Bayview Media/Dream Dearg/PA

Legislation ‘historic’ but supporters warn of lack of functioning Executive

The family of John Laverty, who was  killed in the Ballymurphy massacre,  during a protest against the Bill in Belfast. Photograph:  Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Lewis says legislation will help victims and families to discover truth about crimes

UK foreign secretary Liz Truss says the aim is not to scrap the protocol completely. Photograph: Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty

Within Belfast, Brussels, London and Dublin, politicians get to grips with the protocol problem

In March, the Government reduced the excise duty for diesel and petrol by 10 cent to 15 cent per litre following record prices. Photograph: iStock

Government has begun ‘exploratory talks’ with unions about pay increases, says Martin

Taoiseach Micheál Martin speaks to the media at the Grand Central Hotel, during his visit to Belfast  Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

DUP not interested in ‘sticking plaster’ approach to NI protocol, Donaldson tells Martin in Belfast

The Stormont building in Belfast, Northern Ireland. File photograph: Mark Marlow/EPA

UK government breaching agreement would ‘put everybody in a bad space’, Coveney says

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said it was ‘disappointing’ London had chosen to ‘unilaterally introduce legislation’ but Dublin would continue to engage. Photograph: Salvatore Di Nolfi/EPA

Groups working with Troubles bereaved advise non-engagement with proposed body

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney:  ‘I believe there are solutions we could pursue and we can agree relatively quickly.’ Photograph: Rebecca Black/PA Wire

Minister urges ‘partnership and dialogue’ ahead of Boris Johnson’s Belfast visit

Sinn Féin’s vice-president Michelle O’Neill: ‘I will be telling Boris Johnson that unilateral action deepens political instability and economic uncertainty and must not happen.’    Photograph:  Sam Boal/PA

Threats to withdrawal agreement or protocol ‘reckless’, says Sinn Féin northern leader

Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill has accused the DUP of ‘punishing the public’ and ‘holding society to ransom’:  ‘The DUP have failed on day one.’ Photograph: Paul Faith

British PM and Taoiseach to try break logjam while EU angry over London protocol threat

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson speaking in the Great Hall of Parliament Buildings at Stormont on Friday. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Stalemate following election is not what most in Northern Ireland want

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson with members of his party at Stormont on Friday. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Sinn Féin Stormont leader accuses DUP of ‘holding society to ransom’ over protocol

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson: confirmed his party would  not nominate an Assembly speaker. Photograph: James Manning/PA Wire

Jeffrey Donaldson confirms party will refuse to nominate Stormont speaker

British prime minister Boris Johnson speaking during the first day of a debate on the queen’s speech, in the House of Commons on Tuesday. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/AFP via Getty Images

Individuals will have to co-operate with commission for reconciliation and information

 The North’s first minister in waiting  Michelle O’Neill arrives at Stormont buildings with her Sinn Féin party members on Monday.  Photograph: Mark Marlow/EPA

Sinn Féin leader warns UK against using North as bargaining chip in talks with EU

DUP leader  Jeffrey Donaldson flanked by his 25 newly-elected MLAs in the Great Hall at Stormont. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty

Ball is in the UK government’s court, says Jeffrey Donaldson

Sinn Féin’s John Finucane,  Michelle O’Neill, Mary Lou McDonald and Conor Murphy  in Stormont on Monday. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

Donaldson says DUP will not go back into Executive unless protocol is replaced

Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis has urged all the North’s parties to ‘fulfil their responsibilities’ and form an Executive as soon as possible. Photograph:  Victoria Jones/PA

Irish, British and US governments urge parties to re-establish Executive rapidly

The Parliament Buildings at Stormont. Photographer: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Bloomberg

Likely sticking point will come with nomination of first and deputy first minister

Sinn Féin northern leader Michelle O’Neill at the declaration in Magherafelt, Derry. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty

DUP’s protocol demands could lead to protracted negotiations and possible re-run

 Sinn Féin’s  leader in Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill (centre) and party president Mary Lou McDonald are seen with candidates and activists at the count centre on Saturday. Photograph: Getty

‘New era for Northern Ireland,’ says O’Neill as Sinn Féin claims historic victory in election

In her acceptance speech, Diane Forsythe (DUP) referred to a “challenging” election campaign, but appealed to unionist unity and said this had delivered “a really positive result”. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Bullying claim: DUP referred ‘misogynistic’ and ‘outrageously offensive’ material to police

Alliance Party’s Nuala McAllister (centre-left) with leader Naomi Long (right) at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast as counting proceeded in the Northern Ireland Assembly election. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Four other seats a case of as you were – with two SF and two DUP candidates returned

People Before Profit's Gerry Carroll (centre) holding his son Feilimí with supporters at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Friday afternoon tallies left SF in no doubt of success in party’s heartland

Sinn Féin’s Northern leader Michelle O’Neill with party president Mary Lou McDonald at the Magherafelt count centre in Co Derry. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty

Alliance Party exceeds wildest expectations with 17 seats, a gain of nine on 2017

Election officials count and verify votes at the Meadowbank sports centre in Magherafelt: For the first time in the North’s history, a nationalist party is poised to take the largest number of seats. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP

Sinn Féin poised to secure at least 27 seats and occupy position of first minister

President and vice-president of Sinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill at the Belfast count centre on Friday. More than half of the 90 members to the Northern Ireland Assembly have been elected. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Sinn Féin on track to be largest party at Stormont, as Alliance experiences ‘surge’

Party election campaign posters are seen ahead of voters going to the polls on Thursday in Hilsborough, Northern Ireland. Photograph:Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Polling suggests Sinn Féin on course to secure greatest number of seats in Stormont Assembly

Alliance party campaign manager Peter McCully at CIYMS in east Belfast. Photograph: Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Northern Ireland election on Thursday: Parties designated ‘other’ sense a chance to move past old divisions

Democratic Unionist Party  leader Jeffrey Donaldson, centre, during the launch of the party’s mainfesto for the upcoming  Northern Ireland Assembly elections. Photograph: Mark Marlow/PA Wire

The protocol is the most important issue for the DUP – not just for first preference votes, but for transfers

Some of the young people at the event in Derry spoke about a disconnect between politics as portrayed at Stormont and through the media, and their own experiences. Photograph: Margaret McLaughlin  Shining in the evening sunshine, a new mural of the late Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume has been created on a gable wall in the centre of his home city, Derry in Northern-Ireland. The mural was painted by the artist Peaball. Picture Margaret McLaughlin 23-4-2022 copyright

‘Arguments. Violence. Conflict.’ Young people in Derry voice opinions

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill: ‘just not fathomable’ that the DUP would not go back into government. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Sinn Féin deputy leader says there should not be a drawn-out process of negotiations

It has been reported that British prime minister, Boris Johnson, and foreign secretary Liz Truss had in principle signed off on plans to put forward a Bill which would give the UK unilateral powers to switch off key parts of the protocol in UK law. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/Pool/AFP via Getty

Nationalist parties speak against move by Johnson and Truss to bring in new legislation

Clare Bailey, leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland,  was speaking at the launch of her party’s election manifesto in Belfast on Thursday. Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times

‘Urgency of the climate crisis’ was ‘becoming more and more obvious’, warns Clare Bailey

Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill  and Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald: Sinn Féin appears poised to return the largest number of  MLAs to Stormont following the election.  Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images

If the polls are correct, a nationalist could head government in the North for first time

John Hume and his wife Pat photographed above the Bogside on the city walls in Derry in 1999. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

Beyond Belief will be produced by the Playhouse theatre in Derry

Police ask for CCTV or dashcam footage and appeal for witnesses to come forward. File photograph: Paul Faith/PA

Victim believed to have sustained ‘potentially life-changing injuries’ to face and chest

Saoirse-Monica Jackson arriving at the premiere of Derry Girls, season three. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

DUP MP Gregory Campbell among fans at premiere of season three

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie at the launch of his party’s election manifesto in front of warship HMS Caroline at Alexandra Dock in Belfast. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

UUP leader says there will be ‘no united Ireland in my lifetime’ at manifesto launch

Simon Coveney is interrupted over    a security alert during his speech at a peacebuilding event  at the Houben Centre, Belfast. Photograph: Hume Foundation/PA Wire

Incident disrupted speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney in Belfast

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood addressing the party’s sprin conference at the  Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy, Co Derry. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Eastwood tells party conference DUP move to collapse Stormont Executive a ‘desperation tactic’

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney had been delivering a speech on ‘building common ground’ at an event organised by the John and Pat Hume Foundation in Belfast when the security alert happened.

Minister forced to leave stage at event in city after and device placed inside vehicle

     The new powers include placing a duty on the North’s Department of Health to make abortion services available “as soon as reasonably practicable”.  File Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

Brandon Lewis said regulations were being prepared which would give London the necessary powers

Thirteen people died and others were injured when soldiers opened fire on an anti-internment march in Derry’s Bogside on  Bloody Sunday. A fourteenth died later

Solicitors acting for the families say the Public Prosecution Service must now immediately move to re-institute the proceedings

MPs at Westminster voted to reinstate the need for a US-style visa waiver for non-Irish EU citizens crossing the Border as part of new UK immigration laws.  Photograph: EPA/Andy Rain

Human rights groups condemn move to reinstate US-style visa waivers

Mr Szostak appeared before the EU scrutiny body The Committee on International Trade, which held its first hearing on trade-related aspects of the Northern Ireland protocol. Photograph: iStock

Richard Szostak cites temporary port infrastructure and issues over customs data

The ‘Cash for Ash’ controversy led to the collapse of the Stormont Assembly in 2017. Photograph:  Liam McBurney/EPA

North’s Comptroller and Auditor General ‘surprised’ only one disciplined after inquiry

A Unite Union official picket sign placed on the door of the rear entrance at Belfast City Hall on Monday. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Proposed rise of 1.75% described as ‘slap in the face’ at time of escalating inflation

If elected Jeffrey Donaldson - who is currently the MP for Lagan Valley - must resign his seat at Westminster in order to take his place in the Assembly.  Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Victory in the Assembly election would mean DUP leader having to resign his Westminster seat

 Archbishop Eamon Martin said the Catholic Church was ‘modelling what we’re hoping our parishioners will also do in their own homes’. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill / The Irish Times

‘I’d like to able to bring somebody in,’ says Archbishop as he appeals to parishioners for help

Human rights groups ask that Washington urge London to honour its obligations under international law and make the protection of the Act a condition of any trade agreement with the UK. Photograph: by Nicholas Kamm / AFP  via Getty Images

Warnings that UK plans to reform the Human Rights Act would ‘significantly undermine’ Agreement

Negotiations are ongoing between the EU and UK on outstanding issues relating to the operation of the protocol. Photograph: iStock

Report identifies 29 proposals which it says Northern Ireland will likely have to follow

Jim Allister, Kate Hoey and Ben Habib speak to the media after the latest round of their challenge to the lawfulness of Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Monday. Photograph: Michael Cooper/PA Wire

Court’s view on diminished status of Acts of Union will deepen sense of frustration

Andrew Trimble. Photograph: Margaret McLaughlin

Views of middle ground must be heard in the debate about Irish unity, says rugby star

Emma DeSouza: ‘I think this is an opportune moment for a new type of politics in Northern Ireland.’  Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Campaigner says May elections could be a game-changer for Northern Irish politics

Naomi Long leader of the Alliance Party, says new members want ‘to be part of a movement that is about something other than the constitutional question’. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Key question is not whether Alliance will gain seats in May’s elections, but how many

Booker Prize winner Anna Burns is one of several leadiong writers who will be taking par tin Sunday’s event. Photograph: EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga

Jan Carson organises live and online event at Lyric Theatre to help and celebrate Ukraine

Report published on Tuesday by the North’s audit office examined  challenges in sourcing and securing PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic. Photograph: iStock

‘clear evidence’ of PPE shortages, particularly FFP3 respirator masks

In his speech, Jeffrey Donaldson said the “continued imposition” of the protocol upon Northern Ireland “has cast its long shadow over our political arrangements at Stormont

Jeffrey Donaldson was speaking during the plenary meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly

PSNI has set up a social media campaign to target people now living in Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to come forward. File photograph: The Irish Times

Police investigation of criminal activity in the homes was launched in October

Jan Carson  said the rural evangelical community she grew up in was mostly apolitical. Photograph: Alan Betson

Borderlines podcast: Author from Protestant evangelical background in Co Antrim speaks of ‘plural identities’

Lucy Caldwell’s novel These Days tells the story of two sisters from east Belfast – one about to marry, the other in a secret romance with another woman. Photograph: Joanne O’Brien

Author on how the Troubles affected her life, her writing and her Irish identity

 Northern Ireland’s Health Minister Robin Swann:  issued a direct plea to politicians to come together to find a solution.   Photograph: Peter Morrison/PA Wire

Minister say impasse has ‘cruelly robbed’ patients of best chance in a decade to resolve crisis

DUP leader  Jeffrey Donaldson MP. Photograph:  Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Donaldson rejects notion that post-Brexit arrangement delivers ‘best of both worlds’

Michelle McIlveen of the DUP, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, Nichola Mallon of SDLP, Robin Swann from the UUP and Alliance’s Naomi Long will make the apology on behalf of government.

Ministers from each of the North’s five main parties will jointly deliver a public apology

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson  left the UUP in 2003 over his opposition to the Belfast Agreement and joined the DUP. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

DUP leader said he never had plans to return to former party and ‘respectfully declined’

UK foreign secretary Liz Truss and  European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic.  Almost two-thirds of respondents to a survey said  they saw the UK and EU’s failure to reach a solution to the outstanding issues regarding the Northern Ireland protocol as putting peace and stability at risk.   Photograph: Rob Pinney/PA Wire

Some 63% of respondents said arrangement creates economic opportunities

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Det  Insp Conor Sweeney showing part of a £3 million drug seizure that was intercepted at Belfast Harbour. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Detective says cocaine and cannabis haul will hit multiple organised crime gangs

Christopher Stalford pictured with Arlene Foster in 2016. File photograph: Arthur Allison.

South Belfast Assembly member died suddenly at weekend

Séamas O’Reilly, author of the childhood memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, with his son Ruadh in 2019

Borderlines podcast: Second instalment of bestselling memoir ‘could be on cards as well’

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill, speaking to the media outside the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast. She called on the Government in Dublin to begin planning for a united Ireland.  Photograph: David Young/PA Wire

Sinn Féin vice-president urges Dublin Government to make preparations for referendum

Tributes have been paid following the death of MLA Christopher Stalford (39). Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Tributes paid from across political divide in North following death of Assembly member

 SDLP leader Colum Eastwood: ‘I am very comfortable and confident that we’re going to do well.’ Photograph: Laura Hutton

SDLP leader looks to election season in the North as his party meets up in Bellaghy

President Michael D Higgins said integrated education was both needed and ‘overwhelmingly wanted’ in North. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Integrated education key element to successful future in North, says Higgins

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has played down expectations of a breakthrough in talks between the EU and UK on the Northern Ireland protocol when the two sides meet next Monday.  Photograph: STR/AFP via Getty Images

Minister denies claim Dublin a ‘bystander’ since DUP resignation collapsed Executive

Sinn Féin Minister for Finance Conor Murphy said the DUP was to blame. File photograph: The Irish Times

No Executive means over £300m in extra cash for next year cannot be spent, says Minister

Robin Swann, the North’s minister for health,  said he intended to make an order on Tuesday revoking the remaining Covid-19  restrictions and updating the relevant advice. Photograph: Peter Morrison/PA Wire

Covid-19 rules to be replaced by guidance, North’s minister for health says

Playwright and author Rosemary Jenkinson was a guest on The Irish Times’ Borderlines podcast

Author says unionists need to get involved in ‘discussion on the Border and what to do about it’

Mickey Bradley (front right) pictured with fellow Undertones in 2016.

Undertones bassist Mickey Bradley tells how Joe Strummer got letter from Red Hand Commandos

Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Liam McBurney/EPA

Martin criticises Donaldson remarks and asserts no party should have veto on Executive

Fiona Ryan, who is the North’s Commissioner for Survivors of Institutional Childhood Abuse, called on the Northern Executive “to see and understand that the apology to victims and survivors goes beyond politics”.

Paul Givan and Michelle O’Neill had been due to deliver official statement next month

DUP Leader Jeffrey Donaldson MP speaking to the media in Belfast on Thursday. Photograph: Peter Morrison/PA Wire

Situation described as ‘opportunity’ for UK and EU to ‘step up to the mark’ in talks

Northern Ireland’s  First Minister Paul Givan: His resignation leaves the North’s power-sharing institutions in crisis. Photograph: Paul Faith

DUP strongly condemned by Government and others in Northern Executive

 Paul Givan makes a statement at the Crowne Plaza hotel in south Belfast on Thursday, announcing his resignation as Northern Ireland’s First Minister. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images

Not to have acted would have left Donaldson vulnerable to attack from political opponents

Outgoing First Minister of Northern Ireland Paul Givan arrives at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Belfast on Thursday, ahead of his announcement that he will resign his post. Photograph: Peter Morrison/PA Wire

Resignation automatically removes Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill from office

Northern Irish Minister of Agriculture Edwin Poots: ‘A decision to initiate or continue such checks could not be validly taken in the absence of Executive approval.’ Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Coveney joins NI politicians in condemning move by North’s Minister of Agriculture

File image of  a search for one of ‘The Disappeared’ at Ballynulta, near Lacken, Co Wicklow.  A new name has been added to the list of those who went missing during the Troubles. File photograph: Eric Luke

Seamus Maguire, from Lurgan, is believed to be a victim of Republican paramilitaries

Northern Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture Edwin Poots: ‘The advice concluded that I can direct the checks to cease in the absence of Executive approval.’ Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Minister cites legal advice that measures should not have been brought in without Stormont approval

Edwin Poots claims that recent court rulings mean the Executive must give its approval for the checks to continue. Other parties have called the move a stunt. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

DUP may withdraw ministers soon over protocol, North’s Minister of Agriculture says

Ian Paisley jnr and Kyle Paisley, who was a guest on The Irish Times’ Borderlines podcast this week. Photograph: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Brexit uncertainty has fuelled drive to seek united Ireland – Kyle Paisley

A spokesman said that Mr Higgins had “no difficulty” in attending the Derry event but the President was  speaking in person at the National Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration  in Dublin. Photograph: Tom Honan for The Irish Times.

Some campaigners expressed disappointment that President did not attend Derry event

In remembrance:  Marching to commemorate the victims of the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings – from the Creggan to the Bogside in Derry. Photograph: PA

Derry recalls its dead – but for all the talk of reconciliation, much remains to be done

Families of victims and their supporters take part in a Bloody Sunday memorial march: ‘We will not go away and we will not be silenced.’ Photograph: Getty

Thousands of people walk in remembrance of the 50th anniversary of Derry massacre

Former leader of the British  Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, delivers the annual Bloody Sunday memorial lecture at the Guildhall in Derry. Photograph:  Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images

Former Labour leader says it is an ‘outrage’ nobody has been prosecuted in relation to Bloody Sunday

 A mural at the Free Derry corner  depicts the  white handkerchief waved by Bishop Edward Daly as the body of 17-year-old Jackie Duddy was carried during Bloody Sunday, in Derry. File photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Relatives of victims renew call for prosecutions ahead of memorial events

John Kelly, brother of Michael Kelly who was killed on Bloody Sunday in Derry’s Bogside in 1972. Michael was only 17 when he was killed. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Relatives of three of those killed hoping for closure 50 years after massacre in Derry

Taoiseach Micheál Martin: ‘Unilateral action’ by British government will ‘fly in the face of families of victims’.  Photograph: Alan Betson

Micheál Martin to attend Derry event to mark 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday

DUP First Minister Paul Givan talks to the media at Stormont in Belfast after meeting  foreign secretary Liz Truss. Photograph: David Young/PA Wire

Paul Givan and Michelle O’Neill met UK chief post-Brexit negotiator Liz Truss

 DUP Assembly member  Gary Middleton, said the Parachute Regiment flags were ‘designed to be offensive’ and should be removed. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Flying of Parachute Regiment flags on outskirts of Derry is universally condemned

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