A brief history of political parties with a description of their aims and policies is available at: http://www.local.ie

• Fianna Fáil: http://www.fiannafail.ie

• Fine Gael: http://www.finegael.com/main.htm

• Progressive Democrats: http://www.progressivedemocrats.ie/index.html

• Labour: http://www.labour.ie

• Democratic Left: http://www.connect.ie/users/dl

• The Irish Republican Socialist Movement: http://www.irsm.org/irsm.html

• The Socialist Party: http://www.dojo.ie/socialist/home.html

• The Green Party: http://www.imsgrp.com/greenparty/

• The Socialist Workers’ Party: http://www.clubi.ie/swp/

• The Workers’ Party of Ireland: http://www.workers-party.org/wphome.htm

• Sinn Féin: http://www.sinnfein.ie

Political Parties (Northern Ireland)

- unionist and loyalist parties

• The Ulster Unionist Party (the largest of the unionist parties, it is led by David Trimble, First Minister of Northern Ireland): http://www.uup.org

• The Democratic Unionist Party is led by Ian Paisley: http://www.dup.org.uk

• The Ulster Democratic Party, a loyalist party linked to the Ulster Freedom Fighters paramilitary group: http://lois.itgo.com/politics/udp.htm

• The Progressive Unionist Party, a loyalist party linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force paramilitary group : http://www.pup-ni.org.uk/

- non-sectarian parties

• The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland: http://www.allianceparty.org

• Northern Ireland’s Women Coalition: http://www.niwc.org

• The Workers’ Party of Ireland: http://www.workers-party.org/wphome.htm

- nationalist party

• The Social Democratic and Labour Party (The SDLP is led by John Hume): http://www.sdlp.ie/sdlp/

- republican parties

• Sinn Féin: http://www.sinnfein.ie

• Republican Sinn Féin: http://www.freespeech.org/republicansf/index.html

• The Irish Republican Socialist Movement: http://www.irsm.org/irsm.html

Politics (Northern Ireland)

• The Northern Ireland Public Service Web : http://www.nics.gov.uk

• The Northern Ireland Office Online provides press releases and background information on the current political situation in the North: http://www.nio.gov.uk

• Northern Ireland Assembly: http://www.ni-assembly.gov.uk

• The Northern IrelandWebsite’s Snapshots of Northern Ireland politics can offer some useful if brief information on various matters: : http://www.thenisite.com/politics/ni_pol.htm

Politics (Republic)

• Government Information Services: http://www.irlgov.ie

• Links to all Government departments at: http://www.irlgov.ie/govdept.htm

• Links to government sites: http://www.irlgov.ie/govsites.htm [à vérifier] 

• Office of the President of Ireland: http://www.irlgov.ie/aras

• Houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament): http://www.irlgov.ie/oireachtas

• Office of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister): http://www.irlgov.ie./taoiseach

• Full text of the Republic's constitution: http://www.irlgov.ie/taoiseach/publication/constitution/intro.htm

• Short biographies of Irish statesmen: http://users.bigpond.com/kirwilli/famous/statesmen.htm
 

For information and source material on the Northern Ireland conflict

• The Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) website is a treasure trove of information about the Troubles from 1968 to the present. This academic site has three main sections: "background to the conflict"; "keyevents" and "key issues." It also offers bibliographic databases, information about Northern Ireland society and links to other Internet resources: http://cain.ulst.ac.uk

• The Irish Times’ website: http://www.irish-times.com and in particular its "Path to Peace" feature is well worth visiting.

• The BBC’s Northern Ireland website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/northern_ireland/default.stm) has two interesting resources: "The Search for Peace" (profiles, elections, focus, history, parties, paramilitaries, links): http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/northern_ireland/understanding/default.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/northern_ireland/2001/ni_deadlock/default.stm

• The Galway-based Irish Emigrant website provides on-line access to all historic documents relating to Northern Ireland and is updated regularly. (http://www.emigrant.ie/emigrant/historic.htm)

• The Northern Ireland Office : http://www.nio. contains background information on the current political situation in Northern Ireland

• The Northern Ireland Public Service Web: http://www.nics.gov.uk has links to a number of government departments (agriculture, education, health etc.) and other Northern Ireland official bodies such as the Training and Employment Agency, the Public Record Office, the Royal Ulster Constabulary)

• The International Orange Watch Committee provides a guide to the "marching season" in Northern Ireland and annual reviews: http://www.iowc.org

Information about local government and what is happening in all thiry-two counties:

• Local Ireland: http://www.local.ie ("Click here to find what is happening in your county")

• Doras Index: http://doras.tinet.ie/Doras.nsf/Index

• Department of the Environment and Local Government: http://www.environ.ie

Industrial Relations in the Republic

• The Labour Relations Commission: http://www.lrc.ie

• Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC): http://www.ibec.ie

• Irish Congress of trade Unions (ICTU): http://www.ictu.ie

• Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: http://www.entemp.ie

• The Training and Employment Authority: http://www.fas.ie

• The Health and Safety Authority: http://www.HSA.ie

• The National Standards Authority: http://www.nsai.ie

Religion

• Catholic Communications Office: http://www.catholiccommunications.ie

• The Church of Ireland (Anglican): http://www.ireland.anglican.org

• The Presbyterian Church in Ireland: http://www.presbyterianireland.org

• The Methodist Church in Ireland: http://www.irishmethodist.org

• The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland: http://www.grandorange.org.uk
 

Police (Republic)

• An Garda Siochána, the Republic’s police service provides information on crime statistics and related matters at: http://www.irlgov.ie/garda

Police (Northern Ireland)

• The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC): http://www.ruc.police.uk

• The Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland (Chairman: Chris Patten) released its highly controversial report on RUC reform in September 1999. Information on the Commission and the full text of its report are available at: http://www.belfast.org.uk