There were chaotic scenes in Belfast as campaigners defied strict anti-abortion laws by taking what they said were abortion pills outside Northern Ireland’s main court buildings. The recent vote in Ireland to change the constitution to allow abortions, has increased pressure for change in Northern Ireland, where women are unable to have a termination locally…
Theresa May has congratulated Irish voters on their decision to liberalise abortion laws – but she’s now under pressure to reform Northern Ireland’s strict laws too, with MPs across the political spectrum calling for the “anomaly” to be resolved.
Speaking at an event in Dundalk, Michel Barnier said the UK must soften its red lines if there was any chance of breaking an impasse on the Irish border issue. And he denied accusations from unionists that he wasn’t an “honest broker”. Matt Frei reports from Dundalk.
Gary Gibbon
The message from some Brexiteers is that Mrs May shouldn’t assume their support in all circumstances. They have the numbers to bring down the government, the argument runs, and they would do just that if they thought Brexit was being watered down beyond recognition.
It’s 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed,- bringing power-sharing and much peace to Northern Ireland. But for all the progress, there are shadows over today’s anniversary. For more than a year, the DUP and Sinn Fein have refused to share power in Stormont. And there are hard questions over how to avoid…
The new leader of Sinn Fein, Mary Lou McDonald, discusses the Stormont deadlock and Brexit.
Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Smith and Ben Lowry, deputy editor of the Unionist newspaper, the News Letter, discuss the collapse of power-sharing talks.
The chances of a new power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland have been effectively torpedoed, after the Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster said there was no prospect of restoring the devolved government, and calling for the return of direct rule.
A loyalist “supergrass” who admitted the murders of five people has had his jail term slashed to six-and-a-half years for helping the police. Gary Heggarty was originally given a 35-year sentence for his crimes but turned state witness in 2009 and provided information on 55 murders in Northern Ireland, although the information only led to…
Irish Minister of State for European Affairs, Helen McEntee, discusses Brexit.
What happens to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is one of the three priority issues in the Brexit negotiations. The Prime Minister has given assurances there’ll be no physical infrastructure at the border after Brexit. But others have claimed a hard border is inevitable. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern gives his view.
Former Northern Ireland Secretary, Conservative MP Theresa Villiers, and former minister, Conservative peer Baroness Ros Altmann, discuss the Government’s proposals for the Northern Ireland/Ireland border.
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney discusses the British Government’s proposals for the post-Brexit Irish border.
The border, they say, will be “frictionless”. No physical checkpoints, no number plate checks, instead special customs arrangements to keep trade flowing across the Irish border after Brexit. The Government’s paper calls for a new “customs partnership” with no tariff implications.
In a separate development on Northern Ireland’s strict abortion rules – an appeal court has ruled that it should be left to the Stormont Assembly to decide – not judges.
