Abortion recall: Another bizarre day in recent Stormont history

DUP leader Arlene Foster and assembly members are applauded by supporters on Monday

Stormont has witnessed some pretty bizarre days before.

Rumbustious exchanges over the renewable heat scandal, a police raid on the Sinn Féin office, the sight of the armed loyalist Michael Stone jammed in the doors by the brave security staff who thwarted his attempt to kill Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

October 21, 2019 did not quite match that last piece of - to quote Stone - "performance art". But it was fairly extraordinary.

Pro-choice campaigners stood on the wide slope heading towards Stormont with giant letters spelling out the word "decriminalised".

Anti-abortion activists gathered on the plinth at the bottom of Carson's statue, declaring changes to the law on abortion were not happening in their name.

Pro-choice protesters demonstrated at Stormont

Cheers rang out as the DUP's team marched into the assembly chamber.

However, within the hour the proceedings dribbled to an anti-climactic end.

Speaker Robin Newton tried to complete the election of a new team of speakers, only to find the last assembly members (MLAs) filing out of the chamber leaving Mr Newton and his officials on their own.

In between times, the DUP tried to pull a legal rabbit out of the hat, producing a Defence of the Unborn Child bill which they believed had the potential to stop radical changes to Northern Ireland's abortion laws.

They pointed to legal advice they had received from Northern Ireland's Attorney General John Larkin as proof of the seriousness of their intent.

Anti-abortion groups were also present

But Mr Newton clung limpet like to his own advice, namely that MLAs could not do anything until they had successfully elected a new speaker.

That meant nothing could happen, as no nationalist MLA stood ready to participate in the necessary cross-community vote.

It was a turnaround from the height of the renewable heat scandal when other politicians criticised Mr Newton for appearing to be in the DUP's pocket.

What went up in December 2016, came back down in October 2019 as Mr Newton defied the gravitational pull of his old party and stuck by his view that the proposed bill could not be considered.

With the exception of Michael Stone's shocking intervention, what the MLAs gathered on 24 November 2006 had in common with their successors on 21 October 2019 was that neither gathering of legislators completed the business on their order paper.

Monday's events were not quite as dramatic as Michael Stone's appearance at Stormont in 2006

In November 2006 they failed to elect Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness as first and deputy first ministers.

In October 2019 they failed to elect a speaker, or appoint any ministers, or even hold a debate on abortion.

Four months after the failed attempt to elect a first and deputy first minister back in 2006 the DUP and Sinn Féin defied the cynics and restored devolution.

The images of this latest bad-tempered 51 minute sitting aren't promising, and it would be quite a turn around if the parties manage to resolve their differences as quickly as they did 12 years ago.