June 1994: Shortly before being elected Labour leader, Tony Blair endorsed his party's commitment to Irish unity by consent but soon afterwards told BBC Radio he would not be a persuader for unity.

December 1994: On his first visit to NI as party leader, Mr Blair said PM John Major was right to insist on decommissioning.

December 1996: Blair visited NI and visited all main parties except Sinn Fein.

May 16 1997: First visit to Northern Ireland, where he is warmly received by punters at the Balmoral show.

October 13 1997: Visited NI and shook hands with Gerry Adams behind closed doors. It was the first meeting between British PM and SF leader since 1921. Afterwards he was jostled at Connswater shopping centre.

December 11 1997: Sinn Fein in Downing Street meeting with Mr Blair.

August 1997: Mr Blair told The Sunday Times that his plans for NI involved devolution, an assembly, some form of North-South co-operation.

June 25 1997: Mr Blair set date of September 15 for beginning of multiparty talks with settlement by May 1998. He said "no question" of trading guns for political concessions.

January 1998: Mr Blair co-authored with Mrs Mowlam motion to set up new Bloody Sunday inquiry.

March/April 1998: As talks deadline began to close, the pace of talks increased. By end of first week in April he had met Mr Ahern three times in three days.

April 7: Mr Blair flew in to save the talks, staying until April 10 1998. Belfast Agreement signed at 5pm, 17 hours after deadline.

May 6 1998: Mr Blair accompanies ex-PM John Major on a visit to Northern Ireland to promote the agreement.

May 21 1998: Mr Blair, accompanied by Conservative leader William Hague, visits Coleraine. His third visit to NI in a month, Mr Blair gives five handwritten pledges "to the people of Northern Ireland" including that prisoners will not be freed unless violence was given up for good. Helped the pro-agreement referendum vote the following day.

July 1998: During the Drumcree stand off, Mr Blair invited the Orange Order to Downing Street but refused their request that he withdraw the Parade Commission march ban.

August 15 1998: Omagh bomb. Mr Blair was on holiday at the time but he visited the scene 10 days later and recalled Parliament from its summer recess.

September 3 1998: Mr Blair accompanied Bill Clinton on a visit to Belfast and Omagh.

November 1998: Became first ever British PM to address the Orieachtas in Dublin.

July 15 1999: Assembly meeting to nominate executive ministers collapses over lack of progress on decommissioning.

February 11 2000: Peter Mandelson suspends Assembly over lack of IRA decommissioning.

May 29 2000: Devolution restored after David Trimble agrees to re-enter the Assembly without decommissioning 'up front'.

December 12-13 2000: Mr Blair paid a joint visit to Northern Ireland with Bill Clinton, who was making his third and final visit to the province as US President.

January 24 2001: Peter Mandelson resigns as Northern Ireland Secretary over scandal allegations and is replaced by former Scottish Secretary John Reid.

June 7 2001: Mr Blair re-elected with a landslide majority. In Northern Ireland, the poll ushered in and left David Trimble's position as Ulster Unionist leader hanging by a thread - UUP representation at Westminster was slashed from 10 in 1997 to six, while the DUP came within striking distance with five MPs. In the aftermath of the poll, Ulster-born Labour MP Kate Hoey was among 18 ministers to lose their jobs in a reshuffle.

June 28 2001: Mr Blair flew to Northern Ireland for talks aimed at preventing Mr Trimble resigning on July 1 over the IRA's failure to decommission.

July 9 2001: Mr Blair and Bertie Ahern flew from Chequers to Weston Park in Shropshire for talks over the arms stalemate. The three-day talks ended inconclusively.

September/October 2001: Mr Blair held intermittent talks with the Northern Ireland parties in London, in a bid to prevent the suspension of the Assembly, but his main focus over this period was on the international response to the September 11 toppling of the Twin Towers. Blair declared: " We are at war with terrorism."

October 18 2001: Three UUP Ministers resign 10 days after Sinn Fein exclusion motion fails. Five days later, the IICD admits it witnessed a " significant" IRA decommissioning event and David Trimble says he is ready to return to government.

November 29 2001: SDLP leader Mark Durkan's first Downing Street meeting with Mr Blair since taking over as party leader from John Hume.

November 30 2001: Mr Blair and Bertie Ahern headed up the first British-Irish Council meeting in almost two years which came before only the third full plenary of the North-South Ministerial Council.

January 24 2002: The leaders of Ireland's four main churches had a breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street to coincide with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

March 17 2002: Castlereagh police station break-in.

May 2 2002: Mr Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown unveiled a financial package for Northern Ireland at the Odyssey Arena.

October 4 2002: Stormont raided by police investigating alleged IRA spyring. Ten days later Stormont suspended by John Reid on the back of the allegations.

October 18 2002: In a speech at Belfast Harbour Commissioners, Mr Blair tells IRA it is at a fork in the road, and cannot continue half-in half-out of the political process.

April 7 to 8 2003: Mr Blair and President Bush have joint war and peace summit at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland.

September 2004: Tony Blair presided over the talks at Leeds Castle in Kent, which ended with delegates failing to secure a deal on future government structures in Northern Ireland.

December 2004: Northern Bank raid.

2005: No Blair visit to Northern Ireland during the whole year. He is re-elected as Prime Minister, while the DUP and Sinn Fein sweep the board in Northern Ireland.

October 11 2006: Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern gather at St Andrews in Scotland with local politicians in a bid to revive devolution. The Agreement, after three days, paved the way for the current Executive.