Saturday/Sunday The Loyalist Volunteer Force, which killed a Catholic man outside a Belfast night-club on Saturday, was not operating alone and was receiving political direction from "seemingly respectable" politicians, David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party claimed.
The killing of a cross-community youth worker, Terence Enright, came as British and Irish officials were involved in prolonged discussions to agree proposals identifying likely elements of a political settlement on Northern Ireland.
The writer Francis Stuart denied on RTE radio that he was ever anti-Semitic or supported either the Holocaust or the Nazi regime in Germany.
The Government said it would admit to the UN committee on the rights of the child that its child-care agencies could not cope with the number of Irish children who needed help.
Monday The Stormont negotiations gathered new momentum as most participants, including the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP, welcomed the joint British-Irish document, deemed "only the outline of an acceptable agreement". Sinn Fein indicated it would remain in the talks despite some reservations.
A record £40 million will be spent this year in marketing tourism. Most money will come from Bord Failte, the tourism industry and the EU. Bord Failte forecast growth of 8 per cent in visitors during 1998 and a 9 per cent increase in revenue which last year exceeded £2 billion for the first time.
Proceedings in which the former Taoiseach Charles Haughey and members of his family are seeking to prevent the Moriarty tribunal investigating their finances were adjourned pending the setting of a date for a full hearing.
Tuesday The new president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Tom Parlon, called on the Government to cut interest rates immediately by 1 per cent as a clear statement of Ireland's intention to join EMU at the "central rate of 2.41 against the German mark".
Dr Eamonn Casey has yet to be given permission to return to Ireland by the Congregation of Bishops in Rome, according to an article in Ceide magazine.
The congregation "has heretofore stipulated that Casey cannot retire to either Ireland or England".
At the end of a two-day hearing in Geneva, the UN Committee on the rights of the child issued a broad welcome in "preliminary observations" for the seriousness with which the Government had taken its responsibility in reporting to the committee.
Wednesday Extensive details of the Ansbacher deposits were made available to an officer appointed by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney.
One of the banks which controlled the deposits gave the officer details of the accounts, while another bank looked likely to provide information also.
The Minister for Finance criticised the business community for increasing fears about rising inflation, suggesting it may be using the sharp drop in the value of the pound to "jack up" prices.
But despite the continued weakness of the Irish currency, Mr McCreevy declined again to comment on the exchange rate at which the Government wants the pound to join monetary union.
A child-minder who shook an 18-month-old baby boy so severely that he suffered brain haemorrhages was given a 12-month suspended sentence at Castlepollard District Court.
A Dublin bookmaker offered odds at 10/1 on the prospect of Irish soldiers suing for impaired vision due to the glare from overshiny boots.
Odds of 5/1 were quoted by the Paddy Power chain on the likelihood that members of the Defence Forces would next sue over travel sickness arising from travel to UN duties in Lebanon.
Thursday The Government responded negatively to a move by Opposition parties in the Dail to seek to have the terms of reference of the Moriarty tribunal extended to allow deeper investigation of the Ansbacher bank accounts.
A Government spokesman repeated that legal advice from the Attorney General indicated alterations to the proposed terms could not be made because the tribunal is in situ.
The four Opposition leaders, however, said they would be submitting a motion to the Dail when it resumed on January 28th on the basis their advice was that it was possible to widen the terms.
Plans for a hotel, conference centre and two golf courses at Carton Demesne, Co Kildare, were described as "a national scandal" by the Hon Desmond Guinness, who delivered a lecture to mark the 40th anniversary of the Irish Georgian Society.
He warned that a historic setting was in danger of being "irretrievably lost".
The President, Mrs McAleese, on her first visit to Britain since her election, spoke repeatedly of the Irish and British people standing "on the threshold of a new and very healthy phase" in their relationships.
