In the teeth of multiple elections, can anyone seriously imagine that Northern Ireland’s political parties are going to agree compromises on emotive issues like flags and parades? Yet given the all-or-nothing approach that has been...

Twenty-five years ago today, loyalist gunmen sledge-hammered their way into the Belfast home of lawyer Patrick Finucane and shot him dead in front of his wife and young children. Since then, compelling evidence has emerged to show that...

Standing on the shore at Newcastle during the recent tidal surges, I watched wave after wave crashing over the harbour wall. The wall, otherwise imposing on a clear day, seemed a puny human artifice as it was battered by the tide and...