Saturday/Sunday
CAMPAIGNING for the general election got under way unofficially when Fianna Fail began an eight-week billboard advertising campaign and the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, accused Mr Bertie Ahern of having "no credibility on crime".
The Government insisted that no date had been set for the election but Fianna Fail predicted it would take place on May 15th.
Mr Ahern's slogan for the election and the poster campaign is "People before politics". Costing £250,000, it will appear on billboards at 170 sites around the State.
Ms Roisin McAliskey, the pregnant republican prisoner who was due to contest the Mid-Ulster constituency in the May 1st Westminster election, withdrew from the race. The decision follows a Sinn Fein meeting which decided not to withdraw its candidate, the party's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness.
Gardai investigating the murder in early March of two women in Grangegorman, Dublin, called in British experts who draft psychological profiles of serial killers. No suspect has emerged in the search for the person who stabbed both women to death and then mutilated their bodies, inflicting wounds of an extent and nature never previously encountered in a murder investigation in the State.
Monday
An escape tunnel was discovered at the Maze prison in Co Antrim where prisoners had burrowed to within 30 metres of the perimeter fence and had concealed an estimated 13 tonnes of soil. There were calls for a full-scale public inquiry following the discovery. The prison officers' association said paramilitaries were allowed a "free rein" in the jail.
A Presbyterian minister became the first person to die as a result of a so-called "punishment beating" in Northern Ireland. According to the RUC he died as a result of injuries received in a paramilitary-style assault.
Mr David Templeton (42) had resigned as minister of the congregation at Greyabbey, Co Down, following an incident in August 1995 in which he was fined by Customs officers for importing an illegal video.
The Master of Holles Street maternity hospital in Dublin, Dr Peter Boylan, said a baby boom would force the hospital to ration beds unless it received more funds from the department of Health. Births in the hospital rose by 14 per cent last year, from 6,000 to 7,250.
Tuesday
The Government announced a £7.3 million package of reliefs for 145,000 households in an attempt to placate the rural water charges lobby. The lobby said it is reserving its position on fielding general election candidates in the aftermath of the announcement.
It emerged that the Department of Health may give "a six-figure sum" towards research by the North Eastern Health Board into the possibility of a link between sickness in the Co Louth area and radiation from Sellafield on the Cumbrian coast.
Property developers are to bed targeted in measures aimed at, clamping down on tax avoidance in the new Finance Bill published by the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn. However, the film industry will benefit from the Bill which will allow tax relief on films with budgets of up to £15 million.
Wednesday
Senior security figures in the Republic said they were still hopeful that there would be an IRA ceasefire despite the bombing of the railway line at Wilmslow in Greater Manchester. The bombing was the first in England since the attack on Manchester's commercial centre last June.
National Toll Roads, which runs the West Link toll bridge in Dublin, announced that it is to add two more lanes to the West Link at a cost of £7.5 million. Traffic on the West Link increased from 7.3 million cars and, trucks to nine million last year while the traffic on the East Link rose from 6.8 million vehicles to 7.2 million last year.
Thursday
It emerged that several of Dublin's major stores, including Brown Thomas in Grafton Street, would open on Good Friday for the first time.
Mr Tom Coffey, chief executive of the Dublin City Centre Business Association, said many Irish shops felt under pressure to stay open in order to compete with the international multiples.
The main "conscientious objectors" were the traditional city-centre stores including Clerys and Arnotts.
A life-sentence prisoner at Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim was granted leave to apply for a judicial review because the North's prison authorities would not allow him to be with his wife, also an inmate, when she gives birth next month.
She is believed to be the first inmate to have conceived at any jail in Northern Ireland and her pregnancy has confounded the prison authorities. A prison service spokeswoman said that inmates were not allowed conjugal rights in prison and "a full investigation at the time was unable to determine the circumstances of the pregnancy".
