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Union members protest over the cost of living crisis at a recent rally at Stormont

Alliance hits out as raft of price hikes take effect

One of Stormont’s newest MLAs has said it is disgraceful that the Assembly remains in deep freeze as a raft of energy price hikes take effect.

Former Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle appointed Irish Football Association’s head of public affairs

The former Alliance Party MLA Chris Lyttle has been appointed as the Irish Football Association’s first ever head of public affairs.

Secretary of State for NI Brandon Lewis. Picture date: Sunday June 12, 2022. Photo credit: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire

Brandon Lewis ‘currently exploring’ options to cut MLA salaries while Jim Allister pledges percentage of pay to ‘fighting protocol’

The Secretary of State is “currently exploring the options available to him to cut MLA salaries”, a UK spokesperson from the Northern Ireland Office confirmed on Tuesday.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis

MLAs still on full pay a month after Secretary of State’s threat

One month after Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis talked tough about docking MLAs’ pay if the Stormont Executive was not restored, the Assembly remains in limbo.

Colum Eastwood and Keir Starmer at Stormont. Credit: Stefan Rousseau

I’d scrap Johnson’s NI Protocol Bill if I was prime minister: Starmer

A Labour government would axe laws designed to unilaterally override aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Sir Keir Starmer said yesterday.

Over the first quarter of this year the DUP received £98,925 in donations (Pic Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker).

Revealed: DUP tops table of political donations receiving over £98,000

The DUP has topped the table for political donations in Northern Ireland, according to the latest figures from the Electoral Commission.

British prime minister Boris Johnson speaks after surviving an attempt by Tory MPs to oust him as party leader. Photo: PA

Boris Johnson won’t be able to survive much longer, warn NI MPs

Boris Johnson has been warned by two Northern Ireland MPs that his days as Prime Minister “are numbered” after he won a vote of confidence in his leadership.

The border crossing between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (PA)

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Over 2,000 avail of temporary cross-border healthcare scheme

A total of 2,246 Northern Ireland citizens have availed of scheme allowing them to receive healthcare treatment in the Republic, according to new figures.

Belfast Councillor Tina Black at the Annual Meeting of Belfast City Council where she was installed as the new Lord Mayor of Belfast. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

New Belfast Lord Mayor Tina Black pledges to work 'night and day for everyone'

The new Lord Mayor of Belfast has vowed to work "night and day for everyone in the city".

Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy, John O’Dowd, Michelle O’Neill and Deirdre Hargey speak to the media at Stormont on Monday. Credit: Liam McBurney/PA

Parties could force the DUP to return to Stormont daily

The DUP could be forced to repeatedly return to the Assembly to defend its decision to block a fully functioning Executive as there is no limit on recall petitions under Stormont rules.

This “Northern Irish identity” which Murphy detected must then have seemed to many of her readers difficult to reconcile with sectarian slaughter and the polarised voting habits of Northern Ireland’s inhabitants who seemed to overwhelmingly yearn either for Union or unity

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Sam McBride Opinion Northern Ireland has become a more tolerant but more polarised society

Dervla Murphy, who died this week at the grand age of 90, was celebrated for books like Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle and In Ethiopia With A Mule. But the idiosyncratic Waterford travel writer took a shorter journey to Northern Ireland in 1976, recording her trip around the province on two wheels in the book A Place Apart.

History maker: Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill will be the first nationalist to hold the role of First Minister. Credit: Jonathan Porter / Press Eye

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Jon Tonge Opinion It’s surely time to rip up the political rulebook

It is nearly a month since an Assembly election that resolved the sum of nothing. The Executive has been absent for nearly 40% of the time in over two decades of supposed existence. The Good Friday Agreement deserves a first-class honours award as a peace deal, but in terms of producing political stability, we are talking a lower second — and that could be grade inflation.

DUP MLA accuses Alliance and SDLP of ‘British intolerance’ after veto of Union flag for previously postponed NI centenary march

A DUP politician has claimed that “there is zero tolerance for any semblance of British identity within Stormont” after plans to fly the Union flag for a previously postponed NI centenary march were vetoed on Wednesday.

Success: Former First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson congratulates Naomi Long after she won the East Belfast seat in 2010. Credit: Julien Behal

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Sam McBride Opinion Alliance could topple Sinn Féin and DUP as rivals still fail to understand party’s growing success

No party has grown more in the 24 years since the Good Friday Agreement than Alliance — and yet it was the Agreement which almost killed the party.

The Lisburn Road in Belfast. Credit: Google

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Belfast road tops table for parking fines with 2,508 in two years as traffic wardens accused of being ‘over-zealous’

Our most notorious street for parking fines can be revealed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson with Managing Director of Thales Belfast, Philip McBride, on Monday. Credit: Liam McBurney/PA

No Stormont? No full wages for MLAs then, says Prime Minister

The Prime Minister has fired a missile across the bows of Northern Ireland’s MLAs by insisting he sees no reason why they should receive full wages as long as the Stormont stalemate continues.

Prime Minster Boris Johnson arrives at Hillsborough Castle ahead of meeting local political parties to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol. Credit: Jonathan Porter/PressEye

What they said: Politicians react to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Belfast Telegraph protocol article

In a lengthy article in the Belfast Telegraph, Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out his stall on the current issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol. He stressed that it needs to be fixed – not ditched entirely. Here's how politicians reacted:

Mary Lou McDonald, Vice-president Michelle O'Neill, John Finucane and Conor Murphy pictured during a press conference at Parliament Buildings in Belfast last Monday. Picture By: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press.

Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald accuses UK government of ‘choreography’ with DUP over lack of Stormont Assembly

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald has accused the UK government of choreography with the DUP over the latest crisis at Stormont.

Return: Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is approached by a visitor at Stormont yesterday. Credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

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Donaldson defiant over DUP’s ‘shameful’ block on Stormont

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has insisted there is strong support among unionist grassroots for the DUP’s position on not nominating a Stormont Speaker, leaving the Assembly unable to function.

Way forward: Our politicians could learn something from Conversations with Friends

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Gail Walker Opinion What my Conversations with Friends reveal about NI politics and why Stormont doesn’t work

The eagerly anticipated BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends starts tomorrow. It might seem unlikely but this novel by a thirtysomething bestselling writer has much to teach the crusty veterans of political conflict in Northern Ireland.

DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson with party colleagues. Credit: PA

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Viewpoint Opinion Electorate don’t want to hear old same record

It was all so sadly predictable. But just because something is expected doesn't lessen the impact when it arrives.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 13th May 2022 - MLAs pictured in the Assembly Chamber, at Parliament Buildings, Stormont Estate at the first sitting of the new mandate.

Northern Ireland Assembly meets: Boris Johnson to visit Belfast – as parties slam DUP over failure to nominate Speaker

Boris Johnson will visit Northern Ireland on Monday in the wake of the ongoing row after the DUP failed to nominate a new Stormont Speaker on Friday.

Emma Little-Pengelly pictured on Friday morning as she arrives at Stormont (Presseye).

DUP leader accused of treating voters with ‘contempt’ as Emma Little-Pengelly returns to fill Donaldson’s seat at Stormont

The DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly has made a dramatic return to frontline politics after departing from Stormont last year to focus on her legal career.

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How much do Stormont MLAs and ministers get paid? Taxpayers will fork out almost £100k a week even if Assembly not sitting

Taxpayers face paying out more than £94,000 a week in wages to MLAs and ministers even if the Assembly is not sitting.

DUP's Emma Little Pengelly arrives at Stormont on Friday where she has been co-opted into Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's seat. (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

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Suzanne Breen Opinion Emma Little-Pengelly is going places, maybe even Westminster

A co-option into Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s Stormont seat surprised no one, but the DUP’s choice as its latest MLA certainly did.

US President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

US President Joe Biden calls on Boris Johnson not to rip up protocol agreement

The US President Joe Biden has called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson not to rip up the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long leads out her new MLAs to talk to the press in the Great Hall at Parliament Buildings, Stormont. Credit: Jonathan Porter / Press Eye

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Viewpoint Opinion Time those elected served the people

Day one of a new Assembly and instead of breathing new life into Northern Ireland we have a retreading of old ground which has been trampled so many times before.

‘Derogatory targeting’ of female politicians reported to police after MLA received ‘disturbing images’ during count

Personal attacks on female politicians in the run up to last week’s Assembly election have been reported to police after one MLA received “graphic and disturbing images” during the weekend’s election count.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said DUP will not re-enter Executive without protocol action.

Charities plead for Executive to be formed as nursing chief warns of ‘unimaginable consequences’

Public bodies and charities in Northern Ireland have called for the immediate formation of a Stormont Executive following last week's election.

Party leaders Naomi Long (Alliance), Colum Eastwood (SDLP) and Doug Beattie (UUP).

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Malachi O’Doherty Opinion A non-sectarian future for Northern Ireland needs political middle grounds to assemble

Throughout the Troubles there was a prevailing theory about how peace and reconciliation might be brought about. That theory was that all government effort, aside from security, should go towards building up a political middle ground. This involved encouraging those who were opposed to the violence and who might be amenable to working across the sectarian divide.