This is where you can come for my take on the big Stormont stories and the politicians making the news
16:21 UK time, Monday, 31 October 2011
Martina Purdy, standing in for Mark Devenport, looks at where the Irish presidential election result leaves Martin McGuinness.
"I don't think Martin has lost an election," said Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy, speaking on BBC Radio Ulster about the Republic of Ireland presidential election result. "Not that I can recall," he quickly added.
16:08 UK time, Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Having spent much of the Irish Presidential campaign criticising the media for its trenchant questions about his IRA past, last night Martin McGuinness turned interrogator during RTE's final election debate.
Armed with information about the role played by independent candidate Sean Gallagher in a Fianna Fail fund raising event in Dundalk in July 2008, Mr McGuinness first elicited what sounded like a denial from the candidate, then warned him he was getting into "deep trouble".
12:41 UK time, Friday, 21 October 2011
Two major international stories were featured on the BBC 10 o'clock news on Thursday night, both with a direct connection to Northern Ireland.
The grisly death of Muammar Gaddafi inevitably dominated, but the bulletin also found space for the Basque separatist Eta's "definitive cessation of violence".
20:30 UK time, Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Owen Paterson found himself in the uncomfortable position in the Commons today of facing a number of politicians who have done his job, all telling him he is wrong and should think again.
Under discussion was the Government's decision to hold another review, rather than a full inquiry, into the murder of Pat Finucane.
20:59 UK time, Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Many years ago a friend of mine, recently graduated in economics, went on a year's secondment to the finance ministry in the tiny Southern African mountain state of Lesotho.
He hadn't settled in long when his colleagues came to him with an interesting bit of work experience - the finance minister had to deliver his budget speech within the next week or so, they explained.
14:17 UK time, Monday, 3 October 2011
Elsewhere on the BBC website, I've written a piece analysing Martin McGuinness's use of the term "murder" in an interview for the Independent.
If you didn't catch it on BBC Radio Ulster, you might want to listen to this weekend's Inside Politics interview with David Latimer, who continues to defend Martin McGuinness against his critics.
13:36 UK time, Friday, 30 September 2011
In public meetings I am often asked why the media concentrates on "bad news".
I tend to respond that news, just like gossip, covers what is novel and different.
16:07 UK time, Monday, 26 September 2011
Martin McGuinness accuses the media of being obsessed with his past. Glancing at this weekend's Dublin editions of the newspapers you can see why.
The Irish Mail on Sunday's front page was dominated by a picture of the body of IRA informer Frank Hegarty and an interview with Mr Hegarty's sisters accusing Mr McGuinness of involvement in luring their loved one to his death - a claim the Sinn Fein politician denies.
07:40 UK time, Monday, 19 September 2011
Oscar Wilde wrote in his play An Ideal Husband that "to expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect".
Clearly that's the kind of intellect required to keep track of Sinn Fein.
12:43 UK time, Tuesday, 13 September 2011
So now the Boundary Review's proposals are out, it will be up to the politicians to try to persuade the commissioners to change their minds.
Some MPs and MLAs may be very satisfied by the new electoral map - others fear for their futures.
11:08 UK time, Monday, 12 September 2011
If you persevered to the end of yesterday's "Inside Politics" on BBC Radio Ulster you would have heard my discussion with the BBC's election number cruncher Nicholas Whyte about the likely impact of tomorrow's provisional proposals for new Westminster boundaries.
As part of a UK wide plan to cut the number of MPs by 10%, a three strong Commission has been tasked with reducing the number of constituencies here from 18 to 16. The Commission has tight parameters to work with - each seat is meant to have a minimum population of 70,000 and a maximum of 80,000.
13:20 UK time, Thursday, 8 September 2011
When I was at university back in the 1980s the Union was either a left-wing student organisation involved in boycotting South African goods and backing nuclear disarmament, or - given I went to Cambridge - a debating society where would-be MPs dressed up in dinner jackets and bow ties, trying to impress their peers and any celebrity visitors with the exuberance of their verbosity.
Now, in the new era of devolution, prospective students may pay more attention to the Union as a constitutional entity.
13:16 UK time, Thursday, 8 September 2011
When I was at university back in the 1980s the Union was either a left-wing student organisation involved in boycotting South African goods and backing nuclear disarmament, or - given I went to Cambridge - a debating society where would-be MPs dressed up in dinner jackets and bow ties, trying to impress their peers and any celebrity visitors with the exuberance of their verbosity.
Now, in the new era of devolution, prospective students may pay more attention to the Union as a constitutional entity.
16:51 UK time, Monday, 5 September 2011
Wherever you stand on the "should Al Hutchinson stay or go?" debate, the latest suggestion that the Police Ombudsman should suspend the investigation of historic cases once again emphasises the drawbacks of the piecemeal way Northern Ireland is addressing its past.
Victims Commissioner Patricia MacBride has expressed her concern that the suspension "will have a detrimental and damaging effect on victims and survivors".
19:01 UK time, Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Adrian survived a loyalist assassination attempt launched after a South African agent passed false information to the UDA claiming he had links with the IRA. Adams linked to ANC-IRA claims
For those who didn't know Kader Asmal when he was a law lecturer at Trinity College in Dublin and the head of the Irish anti-apartheid movement, this lengthy autobiographical online interview on a Michigan State University website is worth a watch.
15:14 UK time, Tuesday, 23 August 2011
The United Nation's Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination has been taking evidence in Geneva from various UK pressure groups, including a number of Northern Ireland-based lobbyists.
These included representatives from the travelling community, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, the trade union Unison and the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities.
18:31 UK time, Wednesday, 27 July 2011
It's summer and the corridors at Stormont are quiet with many of our politicians on leave.
But others are already preparing for the autumn - a new assembly term, and a rash of party conferences.
14:11 UK time, Tuesday, 19 July 2011
As Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks give evidence to the House of Commons culture committee the focus will inevitably be on the personalities involved in the News of the World hacking saga. Who knew what and when?
It's gripping viewing, but seen from a regional perspective the bigger impact involves the process, not the individual players.
18:04 UK time, Wednesday, 13 July 2011
So should we be depressed about the annual ritual rioting in Ardoyne? Or heartened that the number of police officers injured was fewer than last year, and the disorder shorter in duration?
The police say 16 officers were hurt on Tuesday, compared to 55 in 2010. A republican source told me the rioting "wasn't a patch on last year".
14:50 UK time, Monday, 11 July 2011
"You can't eat a flag" as John Hume used to famously say. But when can you take a flag down, if someone objects to it fluttering from a local lamp post or telegraph pole?
The police apologised to those who "felt that they have not received the police service we strive to deliver" after the removal of flags near a Catholic church triggered a night of loyalist violence in Ballyclare.
BBC journalist since 1980s. Reporter for Spotlight, Ireland Correspondent covering IRA ceasefire and Good Friday Agreement, United Nations Correspondent in New York, Stormont Political Editor since 2001.
Covered stories in Somalia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Israel.
Author of Flash Frames -12 Years Reporting Belfast and co -author of Man of War, Man of Peace: a biography of Gerry Adams
Once worked as a trainee reporter for Indian newspaper "The Hindu".
Educated in Oxford before going to university in Cambridge to study history
Liverpool and Oxford United supporter.
Mark has an inherited condition which means he can't eat sweets
Betsan Powys
Political editor, Wales
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Brian Taylor
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Nick Robinson
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