  This is a review article on some applications of generalised parabolic
structures to the study of torsion free sheaves and $L$-twisted Hitchin pairs
on nodal curves. In particular, we survey on the relation between
representations of the fundamental group of a nodal curve and the moduli spaces
of generalised parabolic bundles and generalised parabolic $L$-twisted Hitchin
pairs on its normalisation as well as on an analogue of the Hitchin map for
generalised parabolic $L$-twisted Hitchin pairs.
