When I first joined the Belfast Telegraph in the mid-1960s, our production editor, Fred Gamble, had the stressful task of ensuring that the various editions of the paper were published on time.

He was greyer and more gaunt-looking, the face more lived-in than we remember. But that was, unmistakably, Peter Robinson making a rare public appearance in Belfast city centre last week.

Around this time last year, just before Christmas, Belfast cheese-maker Mike Thomson got a horrible shock. The refrigeration unit in his cold room had failed, turning the room into something more like ...