As the world was hurtling towards the cataclysm of the Second World War in 1939, the RUC were spending six months spying on someone Stormont officials thought might be an illegal moneylender but was in fact an honest citizen.
The controversial definition of a victim of the Troubles which includes terrorists killed by their own bomb was drawn up by civil servants who said it should only be used temporarily but the substance of that wording remains the government definition to this day.
An American man attempted to get a government minister to write to Ulster University in an attempt to increase his chance of getting an honorary degree, according to declassified files.
The Head of the Civil Service was appalled at the “outrageous sum” being quoted for journalist Jon Snow to lead a seminar to prepare Stormont’s new ministers for office after the Good Friday Agreement.