My first encounter with Boris Johnson was nine years ago when he visited Northern Ireland as London mayor.
He was attending the official opening of a Wrightbus facility where the chassis for a new fleet of “Boris buses” were being built.
With his bumbling style and permanently tousled hair, never did I think I was looking at a future Prime Minister.
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At that time he was considered a rather harmless figure of fun. An eccentric oddity of a politician. Charismatic, ambitious, but surely far too unserious to lead a government.
And yet in 2019 after a failed attempt three years earlier, he was installed as Conservative leader and helped secure a thumping win for the party in a snap Westminster election.
The consequences that have flowed from his tenure have been far-reaching and overwhelmingly negative for Northern Ireland and for UK politics generally.
He sold voters a pup when he pledged to “get Brexit done”. While the UK has left the European Union, we are still grappling with the fall-out - particularly with the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Stormont’s state of paralysis is a direct result of Mr Johnson shafting the DUP in Brexit negotiations, reneging on pledges that he would never agree to an Irish Sea trade border.
His subsequent push to unilaterally tear up the international agreement that he signed has seriously damaged political relations across Ireland, Britain and Europe.
Mr Johnson’s government has also pressed ahead with controversial Troubles legacy legislation despite almost universal opposition in Northern Ireland.
More broadly, his brazen mishandling of a raft of controversies during his premiership - a cycle of obstruction, denial and deflection - has shamefully lowered the bar of standards expected public life.
Wallpapergate, Partygate and the Owen Paterson lobbying row all chipped away at any semblance of trust remaining in Mr Johnson’s government.
The changing lines from Number 10 on what the Prime Minister did or did not know about sexual misconduct allegations facing MP Chris Pincher was the final straw for many cabinet ministers.
Back in 2013 during his Ballymena visit, my only expectation of Mr Johnson was to give an amusing quote, which he duly delivered as he described London tourists’ enthusiasm for the new buses.
“It’s like tourists on the African savanna have just spotted a species of megafauna such as an elephant - or a lion,” he said while plonked in a top-deck seat.
“And the beautiful thing is that this is the beginning of a new herd.”
He returned to this image in his speech at Downing Street on Thursday, likening the mass resignation of his ministers to a “herd” mentality.
Some might consider that description rather mild, as the U-turn of many of his most loyal followers was elsewhere compared to rats fleeing a sinking ship.
But it nonetheless capped off an ill-judged departing address that was unrepentant, lacking in self-awareness and in which he took no responsibility for his own downfall, instead blaming everyone else.
There were Trumpian overtones, appearing to give the impression that the Tory election win in 2019 was largely a personal vote, despite the many factors at play and the UK not having a presidential system of government.
He sought to speak to voters directly, telling them he had tried to persuade colleagues it would be “eccentric” to change government given their “vast mandate”.
“But them’s the breaks,” he said, almost casually shrugging off the chaos and dysfunction his tenure has brought to UK politics.
The demise of Mr Johnson’s time as Prime Minister offers an opportunity to reset relations across these islands.
But with cost-of-living pressures, disagreement over the Protocol, the war in Ukraine and the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, his successor will not have an easy start.
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