Saturday/Sunday
The president of Sinn Fein, Mr Gerry Adams, said he would not be pressured into declaring the IRA's war was over. Addressing the annual anti-internment rally outside Belfast City Hall he said: "Let no one preach to any republican that we have to say this or have to say that, or we have to put some version of words together to satisfy unionism."
The pressure on the IRA came after a statement from the Loyalist Volunteer Force declaring an "absolute and utter finish" to its campaign of violence.
It is understood that opposition to the IRA declaring the war is over has come from grassroots members.
It was announced that broadcaster Gay Byrne is to give up his long-running radio show. He is giving up his radio slot from Christmas Eve. A spokesman for RTE's head of radio, Ms Helen Shaw, said Mr Byrne's last four months on the programme would be "very special".
The Third World relief agency, GOAL, is to receive £100,000 from the Department of Foreign Affairs. This is the agency's first major funding since a row last year over the accounts GOAL submitted to the Department. The grant is to aid GOAL's humanitarian work in southern Sudan.
Monday
The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, said that hard decisions had to be made about drink-driving, and suggested that a total ban on alcohol consumption by drivers might be desirable. "The whole question has to be raised that if you drink should you drive at all?" he said.
The first vehicle to be clamped in Dublin was a Nissan Micra in Merrion Square. Clamping has been introduced in an effort to deal with Dublin's increasingly congested traffic. Twelve cars were clamped on the first day, and all had to pay a £65 fine.
The Government restated its view that the Belfast Agreement must be fully implemented and that people should not be diverted "by new totems that may get in the way of political progress".
The comment was made after Fine Gael called on the Government to pressure Mr Adams to declare that the war was over. The Government said it should not allow itself to return to a "linguistic quagmire" that was created over the interpretation of the word "permanent" during the first ceasefire.
The Chief-of-Staff, Lieut Gen Gerard McMahon, was the first head of the Defence Forces to inspect a guard of honour in Britain.
Following the announcement that he would end his radio show at Christmas, Gay Byrne is to host The Late Late Show for one more season only.
Tuesday
Mr Peter Sutherland is to become co-chairman of the world's third-largest oil company, following the link up between BP and the US giant, Amoco, in the world's largest industrial merger.
Mr Sutherland, a former attorney general and European commissioner, also becomes a member of the club of Irish multimillionaires, with the news of the flotation of the US merchant bank, Goldman Sachs International, of which he is chairman and managing director. He stands to gain as much as £71 million.
The headstone over the grave of the poet, Patrick Kavanagh, in Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, mysteriously disappeared to be replaced, equally mysteriously, by a Burma teak cross.
The controversy surrounding former bishop Eamonn Casey arose again when he left the US for London. It is understood that his five-year contract to minister in Ecuador has ended. It is speculated that he might get a ministry in London.
Wednesday
The Government is to press ahead with the early release of republican prisoners serving sentences for capital murder despite objections from the Garda Representative Association.
Four of the eight men convicted of the capital murder of gardai are due for release in less than two years under the terms of the agreement.
The bodies of two young men killed on a building site in the US were being flown home. The two men died when scaffolding they were working on collapsed. The two men were named as Mr Shane McGettigan (21), of Drum shambo, Co Leitrim, and Mr Ronan Stewart (23), of Dundalk, Co Louth. Mr McGettigan was the only son of the singer and songwriter, Charlie McGettigan, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 with Rock'n'Roll Kids.
The Bishop of Kerry, Dr Murphy, said that if Dr Casey wished to return to the diocese he would have to apologies for his affair with Annie Murphy before being able to minister as a priest.
The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, has ordered a review of future development options of Aer Rianta. A decision will be taken next year as to whether the State-owned airport company should be privatised, take on a partner or remain as it is.
Thursday
An unexpected fall in inflation in July, the first since January, should allay fears that the economy is overheating. Inflation fell by 0.3 per cent, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, has urged anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of people who went missing during the violence in Northern Ireland to disclose it.
He was responding to a plea from the chairman of the Victims Commission, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, who called on paramilitary groups to "come clean" and identify the secret burial sites of people they abducted and killed.
The death took place of Mr Liam de Paor. Mr de Paor was a distinguished archaeologist and historian as well as an academic, journalist and political activist.