Ireland’s greatest visual artist did me the honour of doing my official portrait which will hang in City Hall. It shows me going the extra mile but, explained Robert at the unveiling on Monday, “spares posterity my hairy legs”.

I hope you like it, especially the homage to the NI Children’s Hospice whose logo adorns my tee-shirt. The Belfast Telegraph interviewed me about the portrait which is now on show in Belfast City Hall alongside those of my predecessors.

On Monday and Tuesday, I made it up the Hill to take part in proceedings at Stormont, including a two minute silence on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to remember the awful slaughter of Europe’s manhood in the First World War — best captured in John Singer Sargent’s ‘Gassed‘. It was of course supposed to be the war to end all wars and while there have been many failures to deliver on that promise, we rededicate ourselves to that noble goal at home. I did a newbie interview for Stormont Today on Tuesday which you might enjoy.

Now some news of friends in the US. The campaigning Presbyterian minister the Rev Bill Shaw, who served as my chaplain when I was mayor and who pioneered the Belfast Compassionate City charter, is in the US this week drumming up support for the only dedicated arts space in North Belfast, his Duncairn Centre for Culture and Arts. If you have the chance, pop along to see him in Boston (Gordon College 19 Nov and later hosted by the wonderful Irish American Partnership) or New York (Mon 24 Nov , he will be guest of the formidable Consul General of Ireland Barbara Jones). If you want to reach out to him, you can contact Bill by email.

And over on the west coast, that great friend of Ireland, photojournalist Kevin McKiernan has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to finish a film about the Wounded Knee siege of 1973 when he was the only outsider inside the embattled native American community. Kevin is an accomplished war journalist and film-maker and his story of Wounded Knee and its aftermath — “the good, the bad and the ugly,” as he says — will make a compelling movie. I have made a contribution.