Michael McBride
BBC News NI

As golf courses reopen across Northern Ireland, few are "itching to get out" more than Bert Whoriskey, who at 90 years old is City of Derry Golf Club's oldest member.

He said it really helps his physical and mental health and "keeps you on the straight and narrow".

The golfer, who said he had scored three hole-in-ones so far in his lifetime, believes if a doctor could write a prescription for the sport, "it would do everyone the world of good".

Changes to rules on outdoor gatherings mean that from 1 April, 10 people from no more than two households can take part in outdoor exercise in a public place or at a sports club.

This means the return of some sports, such as golf and tennis.

However, clubhouses and sports facilities such as changing rooms, showers, kitchens and meeting rooms must remain closed.

Mr Whoriskey says the restriction on golf has been "terrible".

"You miss everything and you really do miss the craic with your comrades," he told BBC Radio Foyle.

"When you see the condition of the golf course it really does lift your heart."

Read more.

The assembly has been recalled on the day that some coronavirus lockdown restrictions ease across Northern Ireland.

With the exception of some pupils returning to school in March, the changes on Thursday are the first since Northern Ireland returned to full lockdown on 26 December.

Image source, Pacemaker

Here are the lockdown rules that are changing from today:

• People can meet for exercise in groups of 10 from two households
• Golf and other outdoor sporting activities can resume
• Clubhouses and sports facilities must stay closed
• Six people from two households can meet in a private garden
• Garden centres can operate click-and-collect services

Julian O'Neill
BBC News NI home affairs correspondent

BBC News NI understands Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary is to examine the PSNI’s role in the funeral of Bobby Storey.

An announcement is expected today.

Image source, PA Media

The DUP had been calling for the move.

A DUP source has told BBC News NI that as far as the party is concerned Simon Byrne (above) has no future as PSNI chief constable and DUP leader Arlene Foster will not be backing off on her call for him to resign.

At the end of the debate politicians at Stormont have passed a motion censuring Sinn Féin ministers for their attendance at the funeral of Bobby Storey.

The motion, which was proposed by the SDLP, passed unanimously on an oral vote.

It has no practical effect but the parties that supported the measure say they were using the mechanisms open to them to hold Sinn Féin ministers to account.

Image source, NI Assembly

The next big event of the afternoon is a meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board at 16:00 BST.

PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne will be facing some tough questions about his role and the role of senior officers in the policing of the Bobby Storey funeral.

We will bring you live commentary of that session whenever it begins.

The debate ends with UUP MLA Doug Beattie calling on Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill to resign.

He tells her to "claw back your compassion, claw back your integrity, claw back your moral authority apologise".

He said the scrutiny that PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne has come under is justified, adding: "This is not Kent; this is not the Midlands; this is Northern Ireland and we have a distinct policing issue here."

Image source, NI Assembly

"The [police] were directed how they should do this by the IRA army council because they wanted to remember one of their own - that’s the reality.

He says the decision by the Public Prosecution Service not to prosecute anyone in relation to the funeral "is absolutely staggering".

"Let's see the review and get some meat on the bones on a decision that was fundamentally wrong."

Finance Minister Conor Murphy - who was one of the Sinn Féin MLAs who attended Bobby Storey's funeral - takes the floor and welcomes the chance to gives his "personal position".

"Hurt was caused and I apologise for that unreservedly," he says as he opens his short statement.

Image source, NI Assembly

"The law does not distinguish between one set of people and another, nor one funeral and another, nor should it, and I accept and cooperated with the police investigation in relation to these events."

"I do regret the political division that this has caused in the assembly and to the public health messaging that we worked so hard to develop as a collective and agreed response to this terrible pandemic.

"I want to say sorry to the wider community but more particularly to apologise fully and unreservedly to those families who were hurt in any way by my actions."

Independent unionist Claire Sugden is "so disappointed in the deputy first minister and others, not least because they have yet to give a fulsome apology for their actions".

"You don’t own their hurt to apologise for it - you own your actions that led to their hurt," she tells Sinn Féin.

Image source, NI Assembly

"It leads me to the belief that if you had the choice to attend another funeral in similar circumstances you would do it again and sadly the people of Northern Ireland believe the same," says the East Londonderry MLA.

"It is your job to know the regulations - if you're claiming ignorance then you’re also admitting to incompetence."

She says she felt sorry for police officers on the ground because people breaking the coronavirus restrictions "feel there will be no consequences for that and that worries me".

People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll says he is opposed to powers which allow police officers to fine or prosecute people for gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.

He says there have been "disproportionate" police actions against some gatherings, such as protests about the murder of Sarah Everard and a commemoration event for the five victims of the deadly shooting at a bookmaker's shop in south Belfast in 1992.

Image source, NI Assembly

The Stormont executive "failed to deliver the health response we needed", adds the West Belfast politician.

Mr Carroll also criticises DUP MP Sammy Wilson for images which showed him not wearing a face covering.

"How can it be the case that those who took the most stringent measures to socially distance and who met in the smallest groups were targeted with a heavy-handed police response?" he asks.

"Those who didn't so much as wear a mask were not."

The Stormont institutions are "imperfect and frequently dysfunctional", says Matthew O’Toole of the SDLP, but it is essential that those who hold power are "held accountable for their actions".

He says that in times of grief people in Northern Ireland share "cultural instincts" of coming together and enveloping families "in support, solidarity and love".

"I have no doubt that some of those same sincere instincts were what lay behind the gathering last June 30th."

Image source, NI Assembly

But the South Belfast MLA says "ordinary people" have the right to ask: "Why not me? Why not my family? Why was my loss less important than someone else?"

“Whatever the finding of the PPS, whatever conversations happened with police officers, however complicated the changes in the regulations, it is clear that multiple breaches of the rules took place on June 30th last year and by senior members of the executive.

"The very least [the public] can expect is a very clear, and sincere apology."

DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley tells the assembly that more than 12,000 people have died in Northern Ireland since Bobby Storey's funeral.

The Upper Bann politicians says the public wants to see "remorse from Sinn Féin, an apology, recognition of the hurt caused" by the party's actions on that day last year.

Image source, NI Assembly

"We're expected to believe 24 Sinn Féin representatives were blissfully unaware the rules applied to them. Really? Is that how low politics in Northern Ireland has got?" he says.

He questions the actions of PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd and asks whether it was "ACC Todd or ACC Gerry Kelly who was in control because it certainly wasn't law enforcement".

"It draws the conclusion that Sinn Féin is above the law that they set - the chief constable has to consider his position, he has to go."

Sinn Féin has "significantly underestimated the amount of hurt, the amount of grief, and the amount of anger that they have caused", according to Justice Minister Naomi Long.

Speaking by video, the Alliance Party leader says the assembly debate is necessary "because we have yet to have the unequivocal, unambiguous apology for the actions of the deputy first minister, of the finance minister and indeed of Sinn Féin collectively".

Describing a "blatant breach of the regulations" at the funeral last summer, she says she does not want to compound the grief of the Storey family.

"What happened did not only breach the regulations but it breached the bonds of trust that are required between elected representatives and those they represent that we will hold ourselves to the same and higher standards."

Mrs Long says no one in the Stormont Executive could have been in any doubt about the rules they set about large gatherings and funerals.

The DUP's Paul Frew opens his remarks with a reflection on the importance and tradition of funerals in Northern Ireland.

He says "laughter in amongst the tears has the most healing qualities imaginable" when families join to grieve.

The actions of Sinn Féin ministers and MLAs who attended Bobby Storey's funeral have "corrupted and copper-fastened that sense of loss in people who have been deprived of that relief", he says.

Image source, NI Assembly

He says an "immeasurable number of people" have been affected that.

"All these families who sought guidance from the undertakers into what could and couldn't happen; all these families who sought guidance from the local minister and priest of what could or couldn't take place.

"How cruel are these restrictions; how cruel are Sinn Féin?"

UUP MLA Mike Nesbitt begins by acknowledging that he broke Covid-19 lockdown rules last year and subsequently resigned as deputy chair of Stormont's Executive Office Committee - he says he continues to regret his action.

He says he find it "extraordinary" that official findings state the PSNI's strategy in policing Bobby Storey's funeral was to "facilitate the funeral arrangements in a dignified manner that take into account the wishes of the family and are sensitive to the community and which do not significantly compromise public health."

"What I wanted to read was that [the police] wanted to facilitate arrangements in a manner that upheld regulations around public health - it seems to me it's the wrong way around.

Image source, NI Assembly

"The police have questions to answer - I am very much of the opinion that the police had advance written notice of the funeral plans of everything from the wake, to Milltown to Roselawn Cemetery."

He says his mother was cremated a few weeks before Bobby Storey's funeral and that nine people were allowed into the crematorium and the church was half empty.

"She deserved better but our glass is half full because we got a church service and cremation those are the times we live in - those are the conditions we have to accept."

Stephen Walker
BBC News NI political correspondent

This was always going to be a debate filled with emotion and controversy.

Even before it started the DUP challenged Speaker Alex Maskey - a Sinn Féin MLA - about whether he should chair the proceedings.

Image source, PA Media

Many of the arguments being aired have been heard before over the past nine months.

This debate is again laying bare the divisions within the Stormont executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly but the motion itself can not compel Sinn Féin in any way.

This is only part of the political fall out from the Bobby Storey funeral and much rests with what happens in policing and legal circles.

It is not right that police have been "dragged into" debates about the Bobby Storey funeral and have become the "boys and girls caught in the middle", says SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly.

The Policing Board member says her party had "no confusion" about the Covid-19 regulations at funerals.

Referring to former SDLP leader John Hume, she tells the chamber: "We buried someone who won the Nobel Peace Prize.

"We buried John Dallat, a man who gave his whole life to public service without any political elitism or trappings that many others did not receive."

Ms Kelly accuses Sinn Féin of being "partitionist" in its differing responses to regulation breaches in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

She tells the party: "You've lost the confidence of members in this house because of your failure to take responsibility, failure to set the same standards for yourselves as you do for others and I hope that you reflect on what damage you have done."

People have "sacrificed and sacrificed and sacrificed, over and over again in almost every aspect of their living day and their life", says DUP MLA Christopher Stalford.

The South Belfast representative says the "epitome" of the restrictions for many relates to the circumstances surrounding funerals.

Image source, NI Assembly

His focus shifts to the actions of the PSNI surrounding the planning of Bobby Storey's funeral.

"Collusion of the state is clearly acceptable in certain circumstances," says Mr Stalford, adding: "I find it outrageous that the PSNI should have acted in such a way."

He restates the DUP's position on calling for Chief Constable Simon Byrne to stand down from his position over the funeral furore.

The DUP's Paul Givan begins by quoting Sinn Féin's "mantra" of "respect, equality and integrity".

He quotes Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, saying: "That is what Martin McGuinness stood for; that is what Sinn Féin stands for and that is what I stand for."

He questions why thousands of people couldn't bury their loved ones over the past year but there was "special status for this one individual" Bobby Storey - "not just one individual, a terrorist".

"Where was the respect for the rule of law broken by the very lawmakers, where was the equality?" he asks.

Image source, NI Assembly

"We’ve heard more shallow, hollow meaningless words - when are we going to hear: 'We were wrong as a political party to attend that funeral'?"

Mr Givan claims the "supremacist attitude that exists with Sinn Féin" is "infecting our political institutions".

It has also "infected the police service who have facilitated this - they didn't engage, didn't inform and didn't enforce - they are lions led by lambs to the slaughter", he adds.

He tells Sinn Féin members on the benches opposite him: "If you want to share power and build a society you’ll have to change your attitude because you’re causing huge damage to political intuitions."

Alliance Party MLA Kellie Armstrong says her family was one of those that lost a loved one during the coronavirus pandemic and were "not allowed to attend a funeral".

"My aunt was one of the many people who saw her husband go into hospital, only to never come out, to never have a wake, to have a closed casket, to only have a few people by her side as he was laid to rest," she explains.

"I come from a large family, we are extremely close, we wanted to be there for her, to pay our respects to him, and to grieve as we would normally have done.

"We couldn't - we stuck to the rules; we didn't find a loophole."

The Strangford MLA says Sinn Féin brought a grieving family "into the spotlight through their own actions by holding their own version of a state funeral".

"They decided nothing would stand in the way of a public show of republican strength for a former senior member of the IRA."

She calls for Sinn Féin "to apologise for their actions and the event".

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken says the "mass breaching" of funeral restrictions last June "undermined the limited faith the people in Northern Ireland have in our government, in our rule of law and in the very process of democracy itself".

He then makes reference to the deaths of former SDLP leader John Hume and SDLP MLA John Dallat last May and August respectively, saying: "These families did not have organisers, stewards or liaisons."

Image source, NI Assembly

He adds: "The first duty of any government, regardless of circumstances, is the protection and safety of its people. Not a small section or an interest group or even a political party - of all the people."

The UUP leader closes by asking Michelle O’Neill to address the issue of an apology and to change her previous remarks.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill says the reason for her attendance at the funeral of Bobby Storey was to support his family during their grief.

She adds: "I am truly sorry for the hurt that has been caused to so many people that have lost a loved one during this time.

Image source, NI Assembly

She says she has "worked tirelessly to rebuild trust and confidence with the public as a result of undermining the public health message".

The Sinn Féin vie-president says she gave her full co-operation to the police in their investigation of the funeral.

Ms O'Neill says the Stormont executive can move its attention from controlling the public health response to the coronavirus pandemic towards planning for economic health and societal recovery - that, she adds, is her number one priority.