Events during the year 2006 in Northern Ireland. Incumbents First Minister - Suspended deputy First Minister - Suspended Secretary of State - Peter Hain Events 30 January – Postal workers entered a 20-day wildcat strike disrupting most of Belfast's delivery service. 25 February – Rioting took place in Dublin as Republican protesters organised counter protests to a "Love Ulster" (Unionist) parade in the city, which subsequently became violent. 17 March – New Oncology Centre was opened at Belfast City Hospital. 15 May – The members of the Northern Ireland Assembly were recalled 3½ years after the assembly was suspended, with a view to electing an executive, and having the suspension lifted. 22 May – Belfast City airport was renamed George Best Belfast City Airport on what would have been George Best's 60th birthday. 1 July – President Mary McAleese and leading representatives of all political parties in Ireland, north and south, marked the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme at the National War Memorial, Islandbridge. 18 July – returned to Belfast, where she was built. 11 October – Multi-party political talks on Northern Ireland were held in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, ending on 13 October and resulting in the St Andrews Agreement. 18 October – Northern Ireland overtook the Republic of Ireland in the FIFA rankings for the first time. 24 November – Loyalist Michael Stone, attempted to bomb the Northern Ireland Assembly on the first day of the 'transitional assembly' following the St Andrews Agreement and when nominations for first and deputy first minister were due to be made. Arts and literature August – Seamus Heaney suffered a stroke from which he recovered, but it required him to cancel all public engagements for several months. 21 October – Renovated and extended Grand Opera House in Belfast was opened. 3 November – Queen's University Belfast revealed a severe funding crisis and doubts over the long-term future of the Belfast Festival at Queen's. Seamus Heaney's poetry collection District and Circle was published and won the T. S. Eliot Prize. Sport Athletics 18 February–19 February – Irish Indoor Athletics Championships, Odyssey Arena, Belfast. Northern Ireland competed in the Commonwealth Games claiming two silver medals Football European Championship Qualifiers 2 September – Northern Ireland 0–3 Iceland 6 September – Northern Ireland 3–2 Spain 7 October – Denmark 0–0 Northern Ireland 11 October – Northern Ireland 1–0 Latvia Other International Matches Northern