It's that time of year when we look back and forward. To jog my memory, I've cast my eye over the 50,000 words I wrote in this weekly column since last Christmas.

These are some of the names which featured most prominently ... Stephen Nolan, Princess Diana, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Peter Robinson, Martin McGuinness, Ian Paisley jnr and snr, Gerry Adams, Barack Obama, Eoghan Quigg, Jonathan Ross, Hillary Clinton, Seymour Sweeney, David Healy, the Queen, and again and again, the one and only Caitriona Ruane.

Figuring foremost in this column were debates such as why the Queen has never set foot in Dublin; why the GAA needs to open up to unionists; why the Stormont Executive dragged its feet for far too long; why Barack Obama has the inspirational potential of John F Kennedy; why the Twelfth must become more of a mardi gras festival.

Other issues have included why the small shopkeepers of Ulster deserve more support against the giant supermarkets; how Northern Ireland is one place on Earth where the customer is not regarded as king; whether a new sports stadium will ever be built here; what is happening to our greatest tourist attraction, the Giant's Causeway; and, above all, how to escape from Caitriona Ruane's blackboard jungle. Sadly, while columnists may jump up and down impatiently venting rage and firing out brickbats at all and sundry, and public opinion purrs in agreement, there is no surety that anything will change. A survey of the issues aired over the past year shows a regrettable failure to resolve important local issues.

I'm sure another 750,000 tourists, if not more, will be attracted to the Giant's Causeway again in 2009 but they will still have to put up with the same ridiculously inadequate visitor facilities that have been there now for close on a decade. But be comforted my friends. Sometime in 2011, more than 10 years after the original Causeway reception building was burnt down, we may start to see a new one emerging.

Then there is the long-running saga of the proposed stadium at the Maze. I thought I read somewhere that the minister responsible, Gregory Campbell, was going to reveal his decision before Christmas. All we've had to date are a series of leaks suggesting the Maze is “dead in the water”. It seems the stadium plan is a goner and instead more millions may be directed to Windsor Park, Ravenhill and probably Casement Park, as a cheap-skate alternative.

The Stormont Executive has not endeared itself to its electorate. Granted Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness did cobble together some belated agreement before Christmas.

But there remains much cynicism and apathy about Stormont. Executive and Assembly members alike need to cut out the dithering, squabbling and point-scoring which marked 2008. They need to raise their game considerably in the New Year.

The credit crunch is centre stage in all our lives and will govern much of what we do in 2009, for better or worse. It took the Stormont Executive far too long to wake up to the need for action. Even local pensioners felt the need to protest on the steps of Stormont against the political inaction — a shameful reflection on the Executive.

I wish Messrs Robinson and McGuinness a better 2009. After the Stormont stalemate of 2008, we need to see more decisiveness. It is down to both of them to deliver it.

There can be no greater challenge at Stormont than the education debate which has now dragged on for more than a year. Had Caitriona Ruane been a minister in a conventional majority rule government rather than cushioned and protected within the framework of power-sharing, she would surely have been forced to resign by now.

That she hasn't and that parents, teachers and children are still in the dark on the eve of another year is an indictment of her stewardship and of those within her party who have encouraged her to pursue divisive policies even though the Executive is supposed to be about developing cross-community understanding. It was patently obvious that such a radical change in our system as Ms Ruane proposed could not be achieved in a short time-span, if at all. The pity is that more in the education world did not raise their voices earlier and allowed such a mess to develop.

Ms Ruane's role serves to highlight the greatest concern about the Stormont Executive. It can only operate efficiently and effectively if ministers recognise that doctrinaire politics will not work. If other ministers follow her example and stick rigidly to a position which has no hope of cross-community approval, then the Stormont experiment in government must be short-lived. That is a big test for 2009. Personally, I would rather see Ms Ruane go than the Stormont Executive fall.

----------------------------------------

Two international events in 2008 set the tone for future global influence. One was the election of Barack Obama, the other the Beijing Olympics. Obama is seen as the Kennedy of our era. He faces the mammoth task of saving the United States economy from collapse. He also must pick up the pieces in Iraq and lead the fight against international terrorism.

President Barack Obama's years in office may well determine whether America can retain its super power role. Meanwhile, the mounting might of China looms large on our horizon.

The 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing were an awesome spectacle, surely a turning point in the modern world for those of us who were there to witness the events at first hand as well as the hundreds of millions who saw the incredible Bird's Nest stadium on television.

The Chinese used the Olympics to showcase much more than sport. They pulled back their Oriental curtain and let us see what lay behind. If we didn't realise it before, we know now that 5,000 miles away are more than a billion people with the potential to rule our future world.