Arlene Foster

Former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson leaving Newry Magistrates' Court, after a preliminary enquiry in July, where he is charged with several historical sexual offences. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Jeffrey Donaldson is due back in Newry Crown Court today

Morning View

Editorial: There is a case for increasing the salary of MPs

Former First Minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster at the 2023 Tory Party conference

Arlene Foster suggests MPs should be paid more

Arlene Foster was environment minister in 2007. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Maze prison listing row began in 2007

Concerns have been raised yet again after a band at the West Belfast Festival led thousands of people in chanting 'Ooh-Ah-Up-The-Ra'. Pictured is the band Shebeen playing at the weekend.

West Belfast Festival band leads crowds in chanting 'Ooo-Ah-Up-The-Ra'

A 'progress pride flag' on display; the flag is one of several used by the transgender movement. ‘Puberty blockers’ is the general name for drugs which are often given to teenagers and pre-teens who declare themselves to be transgender

Letter: NI mustn’t become black market for puberty blockers

Stormont Economy Minister Conor Murphy won't now face questions about his role as Finance minister during Covid. Photo: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press.

Sinn Fein minister's inquiry absence 'unbelievable'

Sue Gray pictured at the Clayton Hotel in Belfast City Centre to take questions at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry which is sitting in the city for three weeks. Photograph by Declan Roughan / Press Eye

Sue Gray's role in push for Casement cash under scrutiny

Dame Arlene Foster has hit out at a Sinn Fein - Alliance 'progressive pact' in the general election. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Foster warns of SF-Alliance 'progressive pact'

Paul Givan, Jonathan Buckley, Gavin Robinson and Emma Little-Pengelly at DUP headquarters. Photo by Jonathan Porter /Press Eye

DUP deputy leader contest to be held after election

Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy and First Minister Michelle O'Neill were both government ministers when they attended a mass breach of Stormont's Covid guidance at the funeral of IRA 'enforcer' Bobby Storey. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Murphy may still be called to Covid Inquiry

An Australian visitor to Northern Ireland tells Charlie Lawson how impressed she is with the Twelfth in 2023.

Charlie confirms he is to present GB News Twelfth again

Arlene Foster and Clair Dobbin

Sharp exchanges between Arlene Foster and barrster Clair Dobbs at Covid inquiry

First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill leaves the Clayton Hotel in Belfast after giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 inquiry hearing. Picture date: Tuesday May 14, 2024. PA Photo.

Foster ‘can’t stand’ with O’Neill after Storey funeral, say minutes

First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill arriving at the Clayton Hotel in Belfast to give evidence to the UK Covid-19 inquiry hearing

O’Neill 'sorry' over Storey funeral but is pressed over 'hypocritical' comments

Arlene Foster, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee, in the House of Lords Chamber. Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Baroness Foster to chair new UK trade body
Former First Minister Baroness Foster has been lined up to chair Intertrade UK – a new body to promote and protect trade within the United Kingdom and lessen the impact of the internal friction caused by the Windsor Framework.
David Thompson

Professor Sir Michael McBride arrives at the Clayton Hotel in Belfast City Centre to take questions at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry which is sitting in the city for three weeks

NI less prepared for pandemic in 2020 than it was a decade earlier, inquiry told

The Festival of Wedding Dresses in Dromore Cathedral, Co Down. Photo: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press.

Wedding dresses of Arlene Foster and Emma Little-Pengelly on show

Northern Ireland Minister of Health Robin Swann

Swann urged end to ‘nonsense’ of ministers attacking Covid lockdown decisions

Protesters take part in an anti-immigration protest in the centre of Dublin on Monday May 6. President Joe Biden is likely to be taken aback when the State Department tells him about the anti-immigrant anger in his beloved ‘Ireland of the Welcomes’. Pic: Evan Treacy/PA Wire

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Migrants come to Ireland because it's softer even than UK

The funeral of IRA leader Bobby Storey in Belfast in June 2020. Handwritten notes relating to a meeting of the Stormont executive following the funeral have now been handed in to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. Previously the inquiry had been told the notes were missing

Investigation into ‘missing’ notes from key Stormont executive meeting

A laptop screen in the Great Hall at Parliament Buildings at Stormont shows a live feed of Minister for Health Robin Swann

Moving Health Minister Robin Swann wasn’t being contemplated, inquiry told

Health Minister Robin Swann during a Covid-19 press conference in February 2021. Pic: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Covid-19 Swann reshuffle claim 'extraordinary and bizarre'

Then first minister Arlene Foster, right, and deputy first minister Michelle O'Neill pictured at a press conference in Dungannon during the pandemic. Sir David Sterling told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry today that a “discernible chill” between the two leaders following the funeral of IRA veteran Bobby Storey in June 2020

‘Chill’ between Foster and O’Neill after Storey funeral, Covid inquiry told

Brenda Doherty, whose mum Ruth Burke was the fourth person to die in Northern Ireland with Covid-19 leads families who lost loved ones to the inquiry. Picture By: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press.:-

Workers in processing plants ‘particularly at risk’ during pandemic

Martina Ferguson (left) and Brenda Doherty (right) leading members of Northern Ireland Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice to the Clayton Hotel in Belfast as the Covid-19 Inquiry holds its first day of hearings in Northern Ireland. The hearings are examining core UK decision-making and political governance in Northern Ireland during the pandemic

Covid-19 inquiry ‘an opportunity for candour’ from Stormont leaders

Coronavirus information signs

Families hail ‘important day’ as Covid-19 Inquiry begins hearing in Belfast
Relatives of people from Northern Ireland who died during the pandemic have hailed the first sitting of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry in Belfast as an "important day".
By Cillian Sherlock, PA

A campaign group representing bereaved Northern Ireland families will hold a public gathering to coincide with the first day of the Belfast sittings

UK-wide Covid-19 inquiry to begin sittings in Belfast

Ben Connah, secretary to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry at EastSide Partnership's exhibition, Atishoo Atishoo We Don’t Fall Down: Pandemics Past and Present, at the Ulster Museum in in Belfast. The inquiry chaired by Baroness Hallett will sit in Belfast for three weeks from next Tuesday

Families want ‘truth, answers and accountability’ at Covid inquiry hearing in NI

Letters to editor

Letter: Everyone wants to move on, but Troubles victims need truth and justice

The 1976 Kingsmill massacre was planned south of the border, to where the IRA gunmen returned after the attack. The Irish government’s hypocrisy on legacy is clear for the world to see

Arlene Foster: Those of us on the border know how terrorists fled to Republic

There is no difference in tone between Doug Beattie’s Ulster Unionist Party and the post deal DUP leadership of Jeffrey Donaldson. Yet at the same time, unionism is being assailed from so many angles, that it needs a movement that firmly resists the nationalist direction of travel

Ben Lowry: This crisis could kickstart a realignment in NI unionism

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson became DUP leader in July 2021 following the resignation of Edwin Poots

Donaldson resignation follows almost 40 years in politics

Letters to editor

Letter: I hope the TUV have better luck in their pact than the DUP did in theirs

Communities Secretary Michael Gove making a statement to MPs in the House of Commons on 14 March, where he set out the the Government's new definition of extremism. Photo: PA

Concerns about impact of new definition of extremism on NI

When Emma Little-Pengelly, right, and her party leader Sir Jeffrey went to Dublin to cheer on Ireland against Wales in rugby, the deputy first minister talked about “our incredibly rich heritage – proud Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots – and our role in the very fabric of our isle"

Neil McCarthy: The DUP embrace of Irish unionism is bad news for nationalists

Northern Ireland Education Minister Paul Givan took part in a ceili dance during a visit to Irish language-medium school, Gaelscoil Aodha Rua, in Dungannon this week

Letter: Are DUP MPs dancing to ceili music like Paul Givan?

The motion in the House of Commons makes it look like Article 6 is being protected. But to be convinced you have to pretend that the courts haven’t said what they said

Jamie Bryson: Westminster humble motion on Act of Union is just trickery

Arlene Foster, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee, says Michelle Gildernew's decision is an opportunity for the people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Foster: SF decision 'opportunity' for Fermanagh

Pacemaker Press Belfast 17-01-2024: Members of two unions which operate gritters on Northern Ireland roads will be taking week-long strike action from Thursday. The Department of Infrastructure has warned people to use 'extreme caution' on the roads

Roughly 8.5% of entire Northern Irish population out on strike today

Bullying and blackmail do not work in Northern Ireland, former first minister Arlene Foster has told the House of Lords, as the UK Government was accused of withholding funding for public sector pay rises ahead of major strike action. Photo: Leon Neal/PA Wire

Bullying and blackmail don’t work in NI, Foster tells government

Jim Allister says Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's wish to retain "privileged" access to the EU market comes at the price of submitting to EU law, the EU court and its Irish Sea border.

Allister: Cost of 'privileged' EU access comes at price of sea border

WhatsApp icon on a smartphone. Phone: Nick Ansell/PA Wire

TUV leader puts questions to head of NI Civil Service about WhatsApp messages

Former First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill in 2021. Photo: Stephen Davison

Stormont ministers’ pandemic WhatsApps lost after devices wiped, inquiry told

Lord Empey said the DUP was in a cul-de-sac of its own making. Photo: Arthur Allison: Pacemaker Press

Lord Empey: Peter Robinson 'launched like a political distress flair'

The former first minister Peter Robinson has intervened on what he believes the DUP needs to secure from any future deal with the government.

Peter Robinson: Deal needs to be done by New Year

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2022 -

Gerry Carroll - People Before Profit at the Northern Ireland Assembly Election Count at Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast

Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Gerry Carroll says People Before Profit stands in solidarity with Palestine

The prime minister Rishi Sunak, centre, and the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, on Tuesday meet Northern Ireland Tories at the Heathrow Lounge in the Manchester Convention Centre for a reception by the NI Conservatives at the annual Tory conference. Pic by Ben Lowry

Ben Lowry: NI was barely on radar at the Tory party conference in Manchester

NI's ex first minister Arlene Foster speaks as Margaret Thatcher at a balloon debate at Policy Exchange room at the Conservative Party conference at Manchester on Tuesday October 3 2023. She won the debate against panellists including Lord Frost, left, as Ronald Reagan and Michael Gove, right, as Teddy Roosevelt

Foster wins good humoured balloon debate at Tory conference

Former DUP leader Arlene Foster says the Queen never put a foot wrong in her eyes

The Queen was inspirational to female leaders around the world: Arlene Foster

Letters to editor

Letter: Police chief wanted to appease the enemies of the state

Arlene Foster said the wildfires had been 'pretty close' to her village in Rhodes.
Picture By: Arthur Allison, Pacemaker.

Arlene's narrow miss in Rhodes wildfires

Stuart Johnston was among tourists in Rhodes evacuated to schools and football stadiums

Greece wildfires: Lisburn man on being moved from hotel to a school

Dame Arlene Foster, former first minister of Northern Ireland, arrives to give evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry at Dorland House in London

Covid Inquiry: Not enough consideration given to impact of lockdown says Foster

Professor Sir Michael McBride, Chief Medical Officer for Northern Ireland since 2006, giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry at Dorland House in London, during its first investigation (Module 1) examining if the pandemic was properly planned for and "whether the UK was adequately ready for that eventuality"

NI Chief Medical Officer says Brexit preparations diverted pandemic planning