Gillian Halliday

January is the month for warm clothes and taking time to relax, says Gillian Halliday

When Northern Irish journalist Peter Cardwell — chief political commentator and host at Talk (formerly known as TalkTV), the ‘home of common sense’ as the media outlet’s slogan puts it — recalls working with the late NI Secretary of State James Brokenshire, it’s a “bizarre” memory of the Conservative MP meeting an alpaca at Stormont that comes to mind.

Making your money last longer post-Christmas — when the parties are over and the festive chocolate boxes are empty — is something that most of us are familiar with, and that January pay day can feel like it’s never going to arrive.

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Each work day when Frank Mitchell hits the button on the elevator at the UTV headquarters in Belfast’s City Quays 2 that takes him to the ground floor, he reflects on a career-changing decision he made nearly four years ago.

Each work day when Frank Mitchell hits the button on the elevator at the UTV headquarters in Belfast’s City Quays 2 that takes him to the ground floor, he reflects on a career-changing decision he made nearly four years ago.

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The late influential British architectural historian Mark Girouard once likened the Ulster Museum to “one of those incomplete Michelangelo statues in which a highly finished torso emerges out of a block of rough-hewn marble”.

One eating venue captured my heart in 2024, and that was Seed — a healthy and trendy food destination on Belfast’s Lisburn Road that gives foodies quick but delicious options that aren’t the usual mainstay of fast food outlets.

The late influential British architectural historian Mark Girouard once likened the Ulster Museum to “one of those incomplete Michelangelo statues in which a highly finished torso emerges out of a block of rough-hewn marble”.