The political A to Z of Northern Ireland in 2021

Three Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leaders, two climate change bills and some mixed views on Northern Ireland’s centenary.

It has been a busy year for Northern Irish politics in 2021.

Here is my alphabetic rundown of the past 12 months.

Republican icon Martina Anderson’s political career came to an end after she and fellow Foyle assembly member (MLA) Karen Mullan were stood down by Sinn Féin after an internal investigation.

She described it as a “body blow” but her family went much further.

You may have thought we’d heard the last of the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator Michael Barnier in terms of Northern Ireland.

The DUP, he said, “oppose everything” and “don’t want to hear about the concrete proposals we are making”.

As for Mrs Dodds and Mrs Foster, he said they “don’t like each other and it shows”.

Mrs Foster said his judgement was “flawed on many levels”.

One-hundredth birthdays are normally marked with a telegram from the Queen.

Northern Ireland almost got a visit instead but that was foiled at the last minute by illness.

Sinn Féin refused to allow either a statue in the grounds of Stormont or the lighting up of Belfast City Hall.

The party that had the same leader for the first 36 years of its life somehow contrived to have three in just over a month.

Along the way the cracks under the surface of the self-proclaimed “one big, happy family” were exposed as never before.

The next Stormont assembly poll is still planned for May. The campaign seemed to begin last January.

She sang some Frank Sinatra at her swansong in County Fermanagh – “That’s life. That’s what all the people say. You’re riding high in April, shot down in May” – and became a TV presenter for GB News.

Apart from that, not much happened.

Sue Gray began the year running Stormont’s Department of Finance.

In the next few weeks we can all decide if that is true.

Which issue provoked the most consultation responses in Stormont’s history?

The legacy of the Troubles? The Irish language? Abortion?

They refused, so Westminster agreed to do it over Stormont’s head.

It still hasn’t happened though.

As in, how many does one person need? If you’re an MP, it seems, quite a few.

Owen Paterson, the former Northern Ireland secretary, was found by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to have acted as a paid lobbyist for two companies, used his parliamentary office and stationery for his consultancy work, and failed to declare his interests in some meetings.

Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods paid him much more than his MP salary.

He quit as an MP but lots of his colleagues found themselves in an uncomfortable glare.

While opposing it he said it could present “significant opportunities”.

Like the protocol itself, he now faces an uncertain political future.

The UK government succeeded where most others have failed in uniting Northern Ireland’s political parties.

Legislation was supposed to be brought in the Autumn, but still hasn’t appeared.

Reports claimed the French President Emmanuel Macron said Northern Ireland was not a part of the UK during a row at the G7.

The then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the remark was “offensive” and that EU figures characterised Northern Ireland “as somehow a separate country”.

Mr Macron said he never questioned “the integrity of the British territory”.

The DUP decreed there cannot be normal relations between the two parts of Ireland if relations between Northern Ireland and Great Britain were affected by the protocol (see P).

So the party failed to turn up at a number of meetings between ministers from the executive and the Irish government.

Whether by accident or design, Mrs Foster’s successor Paul Givan and Ms O’Neill are seen together less often.

It’s either the greatest threat to the union in 100 years (copyright almost any unionist you like), or a distant fourth in most people’s priorities (including unionists’), according to a survey by the University of Liverpool.

Namely, had she pulled out because of the controversy sparked by Irish President Michael D Higgins’ decision not to attend?

Until, that is, it was revealed she had spent the night before in hospital.

Until this year the successful Crumlin-based diagnostic firm was probably best known for sponsoring the Grand National.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for an inquiry into how the County Antrim firm was awarded contracts worth almost £500m for Covid-19 testing equipment.

Randox paid Mr Paterson more than £8,000 a month.

“It was old but it was beautiful” goes the old Orange ballad – as you don’t need to tell Cabinet Minister Michael Gove.

At least according to Ian Paisley who said Mr Gove once boasted in his local paper that he could sing the song.

The North Antrim MP somehow wove the tangential fact into a debate about Brexit, challenging Mr Gove to prove his unionist credentials.

The Scottish-born levelling-up secretary countered by revealing he could also blast out The Fields of Athenry and, more shockingly, the English rugby anthem Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.

Mr Allister made headlines in November over remarks he made following the death of former rugby international, and TUV and DUP councillor, David Tweed.

Tweed, who served time in jail for child sex abuse, died in October in a motorcycle accident.

In 2012, he was convicted on child sex abuse charges, which were quashed in 2016 after he served four years of an eight-year sentence. His conviction was quashed due to the way the jury had been directed in his initial trial.

Following his death, tributes were paid by former political colleagues, including the TUV leader who described him as “larger than life”.

However, Tweed’s victim and stepdaughter Amanda Brown, who was abused by her stepfather from the age of eight, criticised those comments.

The apology was rejected.

Shedding leaders was a popular pastime for the unionist parties this year.

Mr Beattie immediately lauded his liberal credentials and the “Beattie bounce” became a thing.

That is set to be tested next May (see E for Election).

It’s not the first change of direction for the party in recent years.

Some might ask: “Will the real Ulster Unionist Party please stand up?”

Unlike Madame George, Moondance and Into The Mystic, “Robin Swann is dangerous” will probably not appear on any Van Morrison greatest hits album.

In an interesting year for the DUP, Sammy Wilson remains a one man news machine.

It is hard to say who was less amused by his increasingly tortured anti-Covid restrictions tweets loosely based on Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

The East Antrim MP didn’t agree and did it again.

First Minister Paul Givan said the East Antrim MP could “speak for himself”.

He can and it seems he will.

Former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams got into the spirit with a video that featured him turning up on a doorstep and singing “tis the season to be jolly, tiocfaidh ar la la la” and had references to not going away, you know, etc.

But, according to some victims of IRA violence, it wasn’t so much “ho ho ho” as “no no no”.

The virtual Christmas card was withdrawn by the charity for which it was produced and one Sinn Féin TD said Mr Adams should apologise.

Some shameless self-promotion here.

BBC Northern Ireland’s brilliant podcast was a must for anyone who, in this centenary year, was remotely interested in how we got to where we are from where we were 100 years ago.

Net zero – not adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – by 2050 is the target.

A uniquely Northern Irish solution, you might say.