Séamas O'Reilly: A working Assembly is better than nothing - I won't hold my breath

"Any hopes I had about Northern Irish politics being reliably normal died around that time, even if blips of competence and — whisper it — progress appeared on the radar here and there."

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson addresses the media following a meeting with 120 executive members of the DUP on a possible deal to restore the devolved government on January 30, 2024 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The province has been without a government for two years since the DUP triggered the collapse of the power-sharing executive in a protest against post-Brexit trade checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, known as the Windsor Framework. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

I turned 18 in November 2003. Handily enough, there was an Assembly election three weeks later, so I got to cast my first democratic vote almost immediately.

As a socialist teen, I had little enthusiasm for the utter shambles that is local Northern Irish politics. But I’ll admit that voting for the first time did offer me a small, warm glow.