BBC News Online provides coverage and analysis of latest events in the Northern Ireland peace process.
Talks focus on impasse
21 November 2002
Talks aimed at restoring devolution are held between pro-Agreement parties at Stormont for the first time since the suspension of the power sharing assembly on 14 October. However the Democratic Unionist Party is to stay away.
IRA breaks contact with arms body
30 October 2002
The IRA announces it has stopped engaging with the international decommissioning body because the British Government had "by its own admission" not kept its commitments under the Good Friday Agreement.
Blair demands end to IRA violence
17 October 2002
In a keynote speech in Belfast, Tony Blair demands the IRA must remove its threat of violence in order for the Northern Ireland political process to succeed. The prime minister says "we cannot carry on with the IRA half in, half out of this process".
Northern Ireland Assembly suspended
14 October 2002
Devolution in Northern Ireland is suspended for the fourth time at midnight amid another crisis in the political process. The latest deadlock is caused by allegations of IRA intelligence gathering inside the Northern Ireland Office.
Gerry Adams in Downing Street
10 October 2002
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams tells the prime minister that suspension of the power-sharing executive would be a mistake. He said there was no basis for the demand of the Ulster Unionist Party that Sinn Fein should be expelled.
Premiers hold crisis summit
9 October 2002
The UK and Irish prime ministers hold a crisis summit to discuss the latest developments in the ailing political process. Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern meet on Wednesday against a background of uncertainty about the future of the power-sharing administration.
Police apology over Sinn Fein raid
7 October 2002
Northern Ireland's chief constable apologises for the manner in which Sinn Fein's Stormont office was raided on 4 October. Hugh Orde told reporters there had been "errors of judgement" in how the Stormont search had been conducted.
Demonstrations across West Belfast
5 October 2002
Members of Sinn Fein stage demonstrations across West Belfast to protest against the raid on the party's offices at Stormont. Four people face questioning over allegations that a republican spy penetrated the Northern Ireland Office.
Sinn Fein offices raided
4 October 2002
A major search is carried out at Sinn Fein offices by police with documents and computer discs taken. The operation is part of a major police investigation into allegations that the IRA had a 'mole' within the Northern Ireland Office.
Decommissioning IRA makes second weapons move
9 April 2002
The IRA announces it has put more of its arms beyond use
saying its aim is to "stabilise, sustain and strengthen" the Northern Ireland peace process. The body charged with overseeing decommissioning calls the move "substantial".
IRA begins decommissioning
23 October 2001
The IRA announced it had decommissioned part of its arsenal of weapons. A statement from the International Commission on Decommissioning confirmed the claim, calling it "a significant event.''
Reaction
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair announces the decommissioning body's
findings that the IRA has started to put its weapons beyond use. He says the developments would have been considered "unimaginable a few years ago".
Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid
Dr John Reid addresses the Commons and says decommissioning is an historic step, but now all parties must build on it to achieve lasting stability.
Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin
Mitchel McLaughlin tells the BBC's Today Programme that the objective is to take all of the guns out of the political equation in Northern Ireland. He said this will be a difficult and complex scenario.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble
David Trimble talks about the substantial quantities of IRA arms that have been decommissioned and describes some of the many obstacles which have had to be overcome in the process..
Gerry Adams
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams says the IRA's decommissioning of arms is an historic move and an unprecedented step which has really seized the peace initiative.
Progressive Unionist Party member Billy Hutchinson
Northern Ireland Assembly member Billy Hutchinson says the Progressive Unionist Party has worked hard for the peace process, and he is now waiting to see what the IRA does next before planning his next move.
The background
The path to peace
For years, the issue of decommissioning has been a stubborn obstacle to a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. Now, the IRA has become the first Irish republican group to disarm in this way, something that in previous decades, its members would never have accepted.
Tensions persist
The start of decommissioning has been welcomed by many people across Northern Ireland. But on the streets of the more hardline communities there have been decades of hatred and mistrust. Something that will definitely not change overnight.
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