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BELFAST — President Joe Biden arrives in Northern Ireland on Tuesday to salute the 25th anniversary of its U.S.-brokered peace accord. But it will be a hollow celebration. Power-sharing between British unionists and Irish nationalists, the central vision of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, is failing. Northern Ireland has for nearly a year had no elected government at Stormont, the grand parliament building overlooking Belfast

The EU has threatened to use "all the measures at its disposal" after the United Kingdom signalled it would introduce legislation to change the post-Brexit status of Northern Ireland. Britain says its move to change the legally binding treaty — an apparent breach of international law — is an insurance policy in case it can’t reach an agreement with the bloc to end a long-running dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. ... The announcement drew a sharp response from the EU, which has long accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of trying to wriggle out of a deal that his government negotiated...

Lord Trimble has urged Joe Biden to drop his support for the Northern Ireland Protocol, warning the post-Brexit border rules “risk a return to sectarian strife”. The architect of the Good Friday Agreement accused the White House of “contributing to the damage being caused” to the peace treaty by siding with the European Union on the issue. He said in a letter to the US President that the “political promises of the Belfast Agreement have been flippantly dismissed” because of the protocol. The protocol, agreed as part of the Brexit deal, requires checks on goods traveling from GB to Northern...

Masked loyalists are seen after hijacking and setting a car on fire at the Cloughfern roundabout in Newtownabbey, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Saturday, April 3, 2021. Masked men threw petrol bombs and hijacked cars in the Loyalist area North of Belfast. Loyalists and unionists are angry about post-Brexit trading arrangements which they claim have created barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. (Peter Morrison/PA via AP) The disturbances followed unrest Friday and Saturday in unionist areas in and around Belfast and Londonderry, also known as Derry, that saw cars set on fire and projectiles and gasoline bombs hurled...

Britain’s US trade deal is in jeopardy if the UK endangers Northern Ireland peace over Brexit, US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said. “We can’t allow the [1998] Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit,” Biden said on Wednesday (16 September). “Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period,” he added. Biden spoke out during a visit by British foreign secretary Dominic Raab to Washington. The Democrats’ concern comes after the UK threatened to...

A key part of the Brexit negotiations has been the border that separates Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The border is a matter of great political, security and diplomatic sensitivity in Ireland. Therefore the UK and EU agreed that whatever happens as a result of Brexit there should be no new physical checks or infrastructure at the frontier. This is where the controversial "backstop" comes in. Go on then, what is the backstop? The backstop is a position of last resort, to maintain a seamless border on the island of Ireland in the event that the UK leaves...

A bloody outrage: The decorated Para facing prosecution 44 years after shooting dead an IRA killer - while the blood-soaked men of terror know they'll never face justice (thanks to Blair's squalid 'peace' deal) Soldier C faces prosecution for shooting the IRA commander Joe McCann The 65-year-old had been cleared of any wrong-doing over killing in 1972 Thought case is politically motivated and designed to appease IRA families Meanwhile, suspected IRA terrorists avoid prosecution due to Blair's deal Soldier C is a man who rarely shows emotion. Having served his country for 23 years in both the Parachute Regiment and...

A suspected member of an Irish Republican Army splinter group was charged Saturday with trying to kill a Northern Ireland prison officer by placing a booby-trap bomb under his vehicle as police warned of rising security risks as Easter approaches. Dozens of armed riot police were deployed inside Belfast Magistrates Court to control a rowdy crowd supporting 45-year-old Christopher Robinson, who offered no plea to two charges of attempted murder and possession of a homemade bomb. Robinson was arrested following the March 4 attack on an off-duty prison officer, who was seriously wounded when a bomb exploded beneath his van...

A Conservative MP who served as a soldier in Northern Ireland has questioned the need for prosecutions in the Bloody Sunday killings. On Thursday, it was revealed that a team of 15 detectives will head up a murder investigation into the 1972 shootings. They will be led by a senior investigating officer who will be based in Londonderry. Patrick Mercer said he is “confused” by this latest development and does not know what prosecutions will achieve. …

Vincent Banks, 44, from Smithfield, Dublin was brought before the Irish Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Wednesday where he was charged in connection with the murder in November of Northern Ireland prison officer David Black. Banks was charged with membership of an unlawful organization styling itself as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on December 18th, 2012. Banks was also charged with withholding information in relation to the murder of David Black. …

The killers of an Irish police officer will be recommended for early release if there is a comprehensive deal in Northern Ireland.Garda Jerry McCabe was killed in 1996 Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Irish Parliament that he will recommend that the four men be freed as part of a settlement to secure IRA decommissioning. Detective Jerry McCabe was shot dead by the IRA during a robbery in County Limerick in 1996. Four men were convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 11 to 14 years. IRA leadership Responding to a question by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, Mr Ahern said: "As...