The political A to Z of Northern Ireland in 2024

After a 24-month hiatus, devolved government in Northern Ireland was finally restored.

Throw in a snap Westminster and Irish election in for good measure, there have been plenty of stand out political moments.

This is my alphabetic rundown of the past 12 months.

In July, MP Alex Burghart became the shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland after the Conservatives' defeat in the General Election.

You would be forgiven for not noticing as he still hasn't paid a visit, at least not officially.

Asked why that was, he said getting the funding for trips had "not been as easy" as he would have liked.

"I very, very much wanted to come and if I had the money to do so I absolutely would have done so," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

The first one still gets commemorated 334 years on and now we have a new Battle of the Boyne - the Boyne Bridge that is.

Demolition of the Sandy Row structure is to facilitate the new Grand Central Station.

Last minute legal action failed, then the protest took a sinister edge when a sign threatening workers appeared.

King William III, or King Billy, is said to have crossed the site on his way to the Battle of the Boyne mark one.

What's in a word? Or two?

Quite a lot, especially if you're a party leader trying to persuade your members to do something they don't necessarily want to do.

When then Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was trying get his party to return to Stormont, he said the Irish Sea border had been "effectively" removed by the Safeguarding the Union deal.

His replacement, Gavin Robinson, began his tenure by accepting that it had been somewhat oversold, saying: "Yes, there should have been more cautious realism."

But would that have got the DUP back into the power-sharing executive?

Warning this section contains language some readers may find offensive

Speaking of words, it emerged at the Covid-19 Inquiry that Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Michael McBride found two to describe the Stormont Executive during the pandemic - "dysfunctional bastards".

He wondered: "How will we ever get through this with an enemy within, I have a good mind to walk off and leave them to it."

He didn't.

That's the European Football Championship, as opposed to the things in your wallet that you spend when you go to Dublin.

The long-standing drama over the redevelopment of the Casement Park GAA stadium in west Belfast was drifting on for years, seemingly without focus, until it was included in the successful UK and Ireland bid to host the Euros in 2028.

The problem was, the stadium has to be completed a year before the championships are held.

Who would meet the widening gap between what has been pledged and the vastly inflated final bill?

Reassuringly, the then Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said: "We'll get the money, don't you worry."

Guess what? They didn't!

It was left to his Labour successor Hilary Benn to show the Euros idea the red card.

Now we are back to no deadline, and so far no solution.

They're an unnecessary presence which turn up when you least want to see them and generally don't survive that long - just like Stormont some would say. Unkindly.

A number of rooms at Parliament Buildings had to be fumigated after an infestation of the little blighters.

According to SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan when he entered his office, the swarm was "like a scene from The Mummy".

It was a difficult year for the woman once called "Deputy God" who believed she failed to become Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service because she was too much of a "disrupter".

Sue Gray then went on to be Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's Chief of Staff, but when she was installed in Downing Street she lost an internal power struggle.

Her consolation prize is a seat in the House of Lords.

Saturday 3 February 2024. Otherwise known as The Day of the Double Miracle.

Miracle 1: The Executive was restored after two years of the DUP's boycott (see C is for Cautious Realism).

Miracle 2: A man was able to leave proceedings mid-afternoon; and make it the 200-miles plus to Wexford in the Republic of Ireland in time for a GAA match which began at 18:00.

That man was the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) assembly member Justin McNulty, who was now double-jobbing as manager of the Laois Gaelic football team, which had an inconveniently timed game.

It later emerged he travelled at least part of the journey by helicopter.

His party was less impressed by his time-travelling exploits, suspending him for months.

Though like all good sportsmen, he made a comeback and was reinstated.

For those familiar with Northern Ireland's Troubles, 1989 was one of the most difficult years with several investigations finding evidence of state collusion.

Yet there was still surprise when the Northern Ireland Secretary announced there is finally to be a public inquiry into the Loyalist murder of solicitor Pat Finucane.

Hilary Benn explained his government felt it had to deliver on a commitment made two decades ago to the Irish government.

But unionists asked why an exception had been made in this case when other families' requests for a public inquiry were rejected.

The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister asked whether there had ever been a family given more "preferential" treatment.

One minute, he was giving the speech of his life before dragging his party back into Stormont and denying there was an Irish Sea Border (see C is for Cautious Realism).

Then came Good Friday.

Political downfalls have rarely been as far or as fast.

Charged with rape and other historical sex offences, and no longer DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey faces trial next March, but his political career is over.

Story of this year, or most other years.

With their own critically acclaimed, semi-fictionalised film starring an Oscar-nominated actor and a growing legion of fans, this Irish-speaking rap trio from west Belfast openly court controversy with their provocative lyrics and merchandise.

And they wouldn't have it any other way.

Indeed it has landed them with two Oscar nominations of their own.

But for many unionists, the very name is punishment enough.

The year ended with Kneecap winning a discrimination case against the UK government over a decision by the then-minister Kemi Badenoch to withdraw an arts grant.

The Loyalist Communities Council was set up to help with the transition of loyalist paramilitaries from violence and crime.

Nine years on, drug-dealing and criminality continue. So why then did two DUP ministers have separate meetings with the body?

Both Paul Givan and Gordon Lyons said they'd discussed matters like housing and educational underachievement in working class, protestant areas and both condemned violence.

Their detractors are not persuaded.

This year's "how to turn a good news story into a PR disaster" award goes to... the SDLP (although, the Ulster Unionists are also good at this).

The concept was solid.

The party in the north-west select Lilian Seenoi-Barr as Northern Ireland's first black Mayor in Derry and Strabane. What can go wrong?

Well quite a lot.

Two other councillors resigned over criticisms of the selection process which overshadowed the story.

Who wouldn't welcome an election endorsement from the charismatic leader of Reform UK?

Certainly not DUP stalwarts Sammy Wilson and Ian Paisley.

Especially when Reform had already entered into an election pact with the TUV, led by Paisley's constituency rival Jim Allister.

The voters of North Antrim weren't impressed by Nigel Farage.

Paisley lost.

Speaking of PR disasters (see M is for Mayor), Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald ordered "a complete overhaul of governance procedures" after a series of scandals involving child safeguarding issues.

This resulted in a seemingly never-ending litany of resignations, apologies and bad publicity compounded by the fact there was a looming general election in the Republic where the party's poll ratings were already in free fall.

If there was an annual insult of the year competition, the DUP's Sammy Wilson would be a regular contender.

This year's winner came when he called the redoubtable Sir Robert Buckland, chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs committee at Westminster, an "arrogant little pipsqueak".

His crime?

Telling the DUP that failure to restore devolution was unlikely to result in traditional direct rule, but could mean more involvement for the Irish government instead.

When a bronze statue of the Late Queen Elizabeth II appeared in the Antrim Castle Gardens, it caused a right Royal row as the tabloids might say.

The likeness was compared to Mrs Doubtfire.

Everyone agreed that whoever it resembled, it wasn't the Queen.

He was once best known for a rousing speech before leading his troops into battle in the first Gulf war.

Now Colonel Tim Collins is known for other things as well, like telling the Belfast Telegraph that insuring his Rolls Royce in England costs less than a Ford Fiesta in North Down where he was trying to become MP.

After failing in that endeavour, he said voters in the constituency were more interested in "potholes and hedges" than international affairs.

For years it's been one of the crunch political issues in Northern Ireland, so it's appropriate to insert smoky bacon crisps into the argument over the Irish Sea border.

It surrounds claims the European Union is set to phase out artificial smoke flavourings following a European Commission report which said they "carry cancer risks due to how the flavour is extracted".

It would mean the crisps could not be produced by companies in Northern Ireland but could be imported from Great Britain leading to claims by some unionists of "a smoky bacon border".

As the never-ending "would they won't they" speculation over the DUP's intentions continued, former leader Edwin Poots said the party were not "traitors" if they returned to power-sharing (see C is for Cautious Realism).

Calls for a poll on Irish reunification continued to grow.

But to its great disappointment, Alliance leader Naomi Long pulled out of a conference organised by the organisation Ireland's Future.

She denied it was because she was afraid of putting off unionist voters in east Belfast where she was challenging DUP leader Gavin Robinson in the General Election.

Instead, she blamed "last minute diary changes" as a result of the election campaign.

Ireland's Future said it was "unfortunate".

Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly sought damages over two radio interviews given by writer Malachi O'Doherty in which he said Kelly shot a prison officer during the Maze escape in 1983.

But the High Court in Belfast threw out the case describing it as "scandalous, frivolous and vexatious".

Kelly was found not guilty of the shooting at a trial in 1987.

You know how it is when you hold a secret meeting behind closed doors, in a venue not disclosed even to those invited to take part until a few hours beforehand, and then someone begins giving a blow-by-blow account of proceedings on social media.

The meeting was to decide if the DUP would finally end its boycott of Stormont over the Irish Sea Border.

Maximum discretion required.

Except an insider wearing a "wire" began leaking the speech by party leader Sir Jeffrey to the loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson who posted a live feed on X.

No year is complete without someone saying something on X (formerly Twitter) that their party would have preferred they keep to themselves.

Step forward Ulster Unionist MLA for east Belfast, Andy Allen.

His party leader Doug Beattie came up with the cunning idea of moving the super-popular Health Minister Robin Swann from North Antrim to what he thought was a more vulnerable DUP seat of South Antrim in the general election.

Cue Allen thinking out loud on the social media platform by saying: "I would respectfully disagree. We need a Health minister with their full focus on the task at hand, not one eye on WM [Westminster]."

The party's opponents could not have said it better themselves.

The gamble worked Robin Swann won, but then TUV leader Jim Allister proved North Antrim was vulnerable as well by unseating Ian Paisley.

Fitting that the last Assembly debate of 2024 should focus on the issue which kept Stormont suspended for two years.

MLAs voted 48 to 36 to continue the post-Brexit trading arrangements, or the Northern Ireland Protocol to you and me, for another four years (see S is for Smoky Bacon).

The sometimes heated debate showed that in some ways we have moved on, and in others we have not.

Unionists called it a rigged vote because for once, the cross-community veto did not apply.

This is the one about a famous artist from Israel, a little known former DUP Lord Mayor of Belfast and a Sinn Féin employee at the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The artist was called Israel Zohar.

He painted a portrait of Lord Wallace Browne which hung in Belfast City Hall for years until it was damaged during a Saturday night function.

The Sinn Féin employee admitted involvement and resigned. But why did all this happen?

Was it in revenge for the removal of shamed former Sinn Fein Lord Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile's portrait previously, something his former party helped vote for?

Or was it a pro-Palestinian protest at the artist, even though he had disowned his former country?

We may never know.

Israel Zohar told the BBC: "I hope it is the last act of violence in this crazy world."