Northern Ireland

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Tuesday he was optimistic that one of Northern Ireland’s main political parties would soon end a boycott that has kept the regional government on ice for more than a year.

Clinton said he had met with Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson on Monday, and “I left that meeting more optimistic than I entered it.”

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and past leaders of the U.K. and Ireland gathered in Belfast on Monday, 25 years after their charm, clout and determination helped Northern Ireland strike a historic peace accord.

They met to remember a moment, said former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, “when history opened itself to hope,” in a Northern Ireland that has changed dramatically since 1998 — and where some wonder if the accord that created peace is still capable of sustaining it.

BELFAST, April 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden urged Northern Irish political leaders to restore their powersharing government with the promise that scores of major U.S. corporations were ready to invest in the region as he marked the 25th anniversary of peace in Belfast.

Biden, who is fiercely proud of his Irish heritage, spent just over half a day in the UK region - where he met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak - before leaving for the Irish Republic for two-and-a-half days of speeches and meetings with officials and distant relatives.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — President Joe Biden is in Northern Ireland on Wednesday to participate in marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to this part of the United Kingdom after the U.S. helped negotiate an end to decades of sectarian violence that killed thousands.

LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland, April 10 (Reuters) - A number of masked people attacked police with petrol bombs and other objects at a parade opposing the Good Friday peace accord in Londonderry, police said on Monday, a day before U.S. President Joe Biden visits Belfast.

A Reuters photograph showed four young people in the mainly Irish nationalist area of Creggan throwing petrol bombs at an armoured police vehicles, which was covered in flames on one side. Police said nobody was injured and appealed for calm.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Peter Olphert was 14 when Irish Republican Army gunmen killed his father. Forty years later, he says it’s time to set aside the past.

Mark Thompson lost his brother to British Army bullets, another victim of “the Troubles” that wracked Northern Ireland for three decades. He thinks society can’t move forward until it confronts unfinished business and holds some of those responsible to account.

BELFAST, Britain, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Officials and academics from Northern Ireland have expressed their willingness to enhance exchanges and cooperation with China during their meetings earlier this week with Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom (UK) Zheng Zeguang.

The head of Northern Ireland Civil Service Jayne Brady said that Northern Ireland has long-standing friendly exchanges with China and attaches great importance to developing relations with China.

BELFAST, Britain, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Officials and experts from China and Northern Ireland on Tuesday expressed their desire to boost cooperation on new energy innovation, amid such challenges as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Green and low-carbon transformation is guiding countries as they upgrade their economic structures, Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom (UK) Zheng Zeguang said at the China-UK/Northern Ireland Forum on New Energy Innovation.

BELFAST, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Northern Irish police have arrested three men in relation to the attempted murder of a senior detective shot in front of his son in the town of Omagh on Wednesday evening that they suspect was carried out by the New IRA Irish nationalist militant group.

Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell is in a critical condition having undergone surgery overnight. He was shot a number of times by two gunmen while putting footballs in his car after finishing a coaching session with an under-15 soccer team.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Kate Nash says the time known as “The Troubles” never really ended in Northern Ireland.

While the 1998 Good Friday Agreement brought an era of relative peace and prosperity to the U.K. region, paramilitary groups still exist and lower levels of violence continue to plague the community, says the 70-year-old grandmother who lost a brother in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre.