Every summer when parliaments recess, people complain about the lengthy holidays politicians get, when, in reality, most politicians who want to be re-elected do not get much of a break at all any time of the year.

Some of the complaints are warranted though, particularly when the executive of a parliament like Stormont, which has only been back in business since February this year, has still failed to produce a programme for government.

Almost immediately after the Westminster election was over last month, Stormont went into recess until the beginning of September. But while the two-month gap may seem long for some, it is nothing compared to the lengthy break politicians had in the first Northern Ireland parliament in 1921.

When Northern Ireland came into being in the summer that year, the jurisdiction had very limited powers. In its first year of existence, Westminster controlled about 88 per cent of Northern Ireland’s revenue and 60 per cent of its expenditure. Its fiscal functions were very restricted, with Westminster reserving the power to levy income tax and customs and excise.

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The parliament also had no opposition. Of the 52 MPs elected to the northern House of Commons in late May 1921, 40 were Ulster Unionists, while the remaining 12 were divided equally between Sinn Féin and Joseph Devlin’s United Irish League. All 12 nationalist MPs boycotted the parliament, leaving it as a talking shop, like the Sinn Féin-monopolised Dáil Éireann in Dublin.

The northern parliament held its first official........

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