Saturday/Sunday
France carried out the latest of six nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific. It was the biggest blast of the series.
Judges in Northern Ireland protested to the British Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay, over plans to withdraw their RUC bodyguards. Unionist MPs and some British government ministers had also been warned that their police escorts and armoured cars would no longer be available from early March.
SIPTU, the State's biggest union, said the Government may have destroyed any prospect of a new pay deal to follow the Programme for Competitiveness and Work. Its vice president, Mr Jimmy Somers, said the Budget had reneged on income tax and employment commitments in the PCW.
An eccentric millionaire, Mr John Du Pont, was arrested and charged with murder after a two day siege of his mansion in Pennsylvania.
Monday:
President Jacques Chirac announced that France had now "definitively" ended its nuclear weapons tests.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, met the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, to hear further clarification of the British Prime Minister's proposals for elections in the North. There appeared to have been no agreement between the two sides at the meeting.
Three men questioned about the murder at Christmas of a Dublin civil servant, Ms Marilyn Rynn, were released and were not expected to face charges.
Staff planning the relaunch of the Sunday Press were told that Independent Newspapers would provide no further finance for the project.
Five consortiums made their submissions to the Independent Radio and Television Commission for the national radio licence.
A jury was sworn in to decide whether Mr Brendan O'Donnell is fit to plead to a triple murder.
Mr Justice Kinlen ruled that the proceedings at the Central
Criminal Court could not be reported.
Tuesday
INLA chief of staff Gino Gallagher was shot dead while collecting his dole on the Falls Road in Belfast.
A Co Kildare man, Mr Kenneth O'Reilly (22), was charged with the murder of Kildare shopkeeper, Ms Joyce Quinn. Meanwhile, the Minister for Justice, Ms Owen, announced new moves to tackle crime, including extra prison places and the appointment of four new Garda assistant commissioners.
A Catholic bishops' committee said all suspected cases of child abuse by a priest or religious should be reported without delay to the Garda or RUC.
Mr Brian Lenihan, son of the former Tanaiste and deputy leader of Fianna Fail who died last year, was selected for the party in the Dublin West by election.
Two Government Departments spent £5,400 annually on premium rate telephone services including sports result lines, speaking clocks and weather lines, according to a report on Civil Service telephone management. The Departments - Health and Transport, Energy and Communications - have since banned use of the lines.
Wednesday
A 38 year old Dublin father was jailed for 12 years for assaulting his baby who now has impaired vision and other disabilities. He had previously been jailed for three years for an almost identical offence against another infant son.
The High Court found that the North Western Health Board had been negligent in discharging a psychiatric patient who killed himself four days later. The man's family was awarded £35,000 damages.
Doubts arose over Friday's planned adoption by the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation of an all party report on resolving the Northern Ireland conflict, because of Sinn Fein's reported misgivings.
An Bord Pleanala rejected plans for a privately run landfill site near Mulhuddart, Co Dublin, after users of Dublin Airport said it would pose a hazard to air traffic.
Thursday
Clashes broke out between mourners and the RUC in west Belfast when police stopped the funeral cortege of murdered INLA leader Gino Gallagher from leaving his home. The RUC moved in when 12 men and women in paramilitary uniform flanked his coffin. The coffin remained in his home for the night.
A meeting of the Anglo Irish Inter Governmental Conference in London focused on the differences of emphasis the British and Irish governments had placed on the Mitchell report, the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, said. A further meeting will be held in Dublin next week.
The prospect of an early cut in Irish interest rates arose as the Bundesbank cut German rates.
The newly elected mayor of San Francisco backed a campaign to boycott Bushmills whiskey in the US by pouring a bottle of it down a drain. An Irish American group has accused Bushmills of discriminating against Catholics at its distillery in the overwhelmingly Protestant Co Antrim village, where only 10 of its 108 member workforce are Catholic. Irish Distillers, which owns the brand, denies the claim.
Martin Foley, a former associate of Martin Cahill, the prominent Dublin gang leader shot dead in 1994, survived the second attempt in two months on his life.
Leaders of the nursing unions said they would urge their 26,000 members to reject the latest pay offer and to ballot on industrial action.