Marking its 100th anniversary, Northern Ireland entered 2021 during a lockdown aimed at tackling the second wave of coronavirus.
As the year played out, the political divisions remained stark both internally and externally. A new first minister was elected as the DUP worked through three leaders in just three weeks.
Church leaders came together to deliver a message of reconciliation at a cross-community service to mark the centenary of the formation of Northern Ireland in October.
In politics, Arlene Foster stepped down as DUP leader in April after party criticism on her handling of several key issues including the Brexit protocol, the emergence of a border in the Irish sea and her decision to abstain, rather than vote against, a ban on gay conversion therapy.
But what followed highlighted more divisions within the party after Edwin Poots narrowly won the leadership in a secret ballot in May, only to resign 21 days later after his efforts to press ahead with reconstituting Stormont’s powersharing Executive alongside Sinn Fein met significant resistance from fellow DUP members, among other issues.
In July, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis announced plans for a statute of limitations which would end all prosecutions for Troubles incidents up to April 1998, and would apply to military veterans as well as ex-paramilitaries.
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Although the Queen was too ill to attend the centenary events – and Irish President Michael D Higgins pointedly turned down the invitation because he believed it was not politically neutral – the Prince of Wales and Duke and Duchess of Cambridge all enjoyed Northern Irish hospitality in 2021.
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