An ex-British soldier was jailed for four years for possession of illegal drugs.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005: Four men and a woman were charged in Antrim with membership of the Real IRA. One man was also charged with possession of explosives. The Special Court in Dublin rejected a claim from five men accused of membership of an illegal organisation that their arrest and detention was unlawful.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2005: A Dundalk man was charged with supplying a car used in the Omagh bombing.

Ronnie Flanagan, now Sir Ronnie and former Chief Constable of the RUC, was appointed Chief Inspector of Constabulary on a salary of £189,000 a year.

"I am very sorry that they were subjected to such an ordeal and such an injustice" said Tony Blair who apologized to the Conlon and Maguire families for the wrongful convictions that held them in jail for up to 15 years.

Stones and petrol bombs were thrown at the RUC in Lurgan while they examined a suspect device.

Gerry Adams stated that his party will "oppose any return to violence by anyon"”.

Bertie Ahern said there will be no early release for the men jailed for the killing of Garda Gerry McCabe.

Two 26-County policemen accused of sexually harassing two female recruits were transferred from the training college in Templemore, Co Tipperary.

Bertie Ahern was reported to be taking legal advice on whether he should release the State Papers relating to the Omagh bombing.

Kate Peyton, a BBC producer was shot dead in Somalia.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2005: Gerry Adams challenged Bertie Ahern to have him arrested over allegations in relation to the Northern Bank robbery.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2005: Over a period of nine years 45 pieces of weaponry (guns and ammunition) have been lost or stolen from the RUC/PSNI. Losses now stand at 8 per year.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2005: After two years the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Six Counties still has not decided if it will prosecute 20 RUC and British Army officers for collusion as recommended by the Stephens Report.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2005: A Strabane man faced two charges of having a gun and an incendiary device in suspicious circumstances.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2005: A number of US Congressmen petitioned Tony Blair for the immediate establishment of a public enquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane.

Michael McAleavey, from Belfast but a member of the Free State Army, requested that he be allowed to serve the rest of his sentence in Maghaberry prison. McAleavey was convicted of killing three of his colleagues while serving as a peacekeeper in Lebanon in 1983.

British Army bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion on a suspect device in Warrenpoint, Co Down.

The Ulster Unionist Party distance itself from comments made by one of their members, Adrian Watson, that Travellers are the 'scum of the earth'.

A public meeting to discuss policing was held in Newry, Co Down despite a bomb hoax which brought the city to a standstill.

The GAA will debate the opening of Croke Park to other sports at its annual congress in April.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2005: The editorial in the Irish News (Belfast) reported that 30 kilos of plutonium has been ‘misplaced’ at the BNFL reprocessing site at Sellafield.

The family of Eoin Morley called on the Provos to apologise for his murder and to retract allegations made against him. Morley was shot in 1990.

The RUC/PSNI and 26-County police were reported to be working together in an investigation into the alleged abduction of a Louth man.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2005: St Saviour's Church of Ireland in Craigavon was set on fire. This was the third such attack on the church.

Michael McDowell, Free State minister for justice claimed that Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris are members of the Provo Army Council.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2005: Gardaí will be patrolling the streets of the Six Occupied Counties in the uniform of the RUC in a new secondment packege agreed by them and the RUC.

Eamonn Phoenix believes that Provo Sinn Féin are facing their gravest split since the 1921 Treaty split.

Members of the Orange Order who took part in an illegal march at the weekend are facing possible prosecution. It had not been sanctioned by the Parades Commission.

Five men were each jailed for four years at the Special Court in Dublin on charges of IRA membership.

A Co Down man was charged in connection with a mortar attack on an RUC station seven years ago.

A British soldier who was earlier this month charged with assault, inflicting serious bodily harm, remains on 'normal operational duties'.

Michael Stone, who murdered three mourners at a Republican funeral in 1998, was arrested and questioned about plans to kill high profile political figures in the mid 1980. He was released without charge.

The chairman of the Policing Board, Desmond Rea, has resigned from the board of a Dublin company, Ivy Woods properties, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harcourt Development.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2005: Two British soldiers, Corporal Daniel Kenyon and Lance Corporal Mark Cooley were found guilty of mistreating captured [alleged] looters at an aid camp in Basra in May 2003.

A Cork man, charged with membership of an illegal organisation, was granted bail in the Special Court in Dublin on his own bond of €500 and an independent surety of €30,000. Conditions imposed on Don Bullman, Wilton, Cork included surrendering his passport; not to associate with anyone convicted of subversive crime; not to associate with four named men and that he not travel outside County Cork.

Taxpayers have paid over €192 million for Tribunals and other inquiries since 1997 to the end of last year – €139m of which went in lawyer's fees.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2005: A leading loyalist was charged with membership of the UFF.

26-County police apologised to the family of Dean Lyons, Dublin, who was wrongfully charged with the murder of two women in Dublin in 1997.

Nine men were sentenced to between four and six years in the Special Court in Dublin. They had pleaded guilty to possession of firearms in suspicious circumstances in August 2003 when gardai raided what was alleged to be a Continuity IRA training camp. Patrick Deery and Joseph Mooney from Waterford were jailed for six years; John O’Halloran, Limerick, Mark McMahon and Patrick Kelly, Wexford, Brian Galvin and Michael Leahy, Waterford, were each jailed for five years; Thomas Barry, Waterford and Dean Coleman, Limerick, were each sentenced to four years.