The Queen may have to move out of Buckingham Palace to allow maintenance work costing £150m to be carried out.

It is one option being considered by the royal household, which says the palace needs new plumbing and wiring, with some rooms last decorated in 1952.
It comes as the Crown Estate, which owns property on behalf of the Queen, returned record profits of £285m to the taxpayer last year - up 6.7%.
Public funding of the Queen is expected to rise by £2m next year - to £42.8m.
Meanwhile, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has strongly denied reports the Scottish Parliament could cut its contribution to the monarchy by between £1m and £1.5m when further powers are devolved.
£150m
estimated cost of repair work
Oldest parts of palace built in 1703
Electrics installed in 1949
State rooms last decorated 1952
Asbestos removed last year at a cost of £300,000
The monarch is paid 15% of the Crown Estate's profits by the UK government - including from the Crown Estate in Scotland - under the Sovereign Grant formula launched in 2011.
The latest accounts show the Queen last year received £37.9m from the grant - of which she spent £35.7m. That figure will increase to £40.05m this year, and is expected to rise to £42.8m next year.
The figure does not include the cost of providing security for the Royal Family.
It comes as the Crown Estate's annual results show its capital value is at a historic high of £11.5 billion - up 16.1%.
By Peter Hunt, BBC royal correspondent
It's the fantasy of many a royal official that their annual accounts will be published and cause barely a ripple.
The reality, once again this year, is very different.
First, at Buckingham Palace there was the suggestion - denied robustly in both London and Edinburgh - that with more devolution Scotland might pay less towards the Queen's upkeep.
Then in Berlin - where the royal press pack is in residence for the Queen's state visit - an official was questioned about the year-on-year increase in taxpayer funding the monarch is enjoying.
He said the funds were needed to address a backlog in property maintenance.
The official raised the spectre of the head of state being one palace down for a few months while its ageing plumbing and wiring was sorted.
This year, for the royals, their "financial cloud" has a silver lining - there has been less focus on the money some of the Windsors spend on chartering private jets.
The accounts show that almost half of the annual grant was spent on payroll costs.
Property maintenance dipped from £13.3m in 2013-14 to £11.7m, with a surplus of £2.2m transferred to reserves to help meet the future cost of work on Buckingham Palace.
The income earned by royals was recorded at £13.3m down from £13.4m in 2013/14.
Other details to emerge from the annual accounts for 2014/15 include:
Buckingham House, as it was originally known, was built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1703. It was bought by George III for his wife, Queen Charlotte, in 1761 and remodelling began a year later.
George IV, on his accession to the throne in 1820, oversaw its transformation into Buckingham Palace with the assistance of architect John Nash.
Buckingham Palace now boasts 775 rooms, including 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms and 78 bathrooms.
The palace - like Windsor Castle - does not belong to the Queen, but is instead held by the monarch as sovereign.
The Queen, who is 89, spends a third of the year hosting events at the palace - her official London home.
Sir Alan Reid, keeper of the Privy Purse, said: "Over the coming years, the maintenance of the estate and in particular Buckingham Palace, will present a significant financial challenge.
"We will continue to work closely with the trustees to ensure that the funding for the royal household reflects that challenge."
Royal sources told reporters that significant amounts of asbestos needed to be removed from Buckingham Palace in a project described as a fundamental "re-service".
"One option is for the palace to be vacated. The initial estimate for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace looks like £150m," a source said.
"That depends on how you go about refurbishment, whether you do it in parts or the whole thing (at once)."
Graham Smith, from campaign group Republic, called for a change in approach.
"It is time that the whole funding system is scrapped, re-written, that the monarchy is put on a proper budgetary fitting - and that maintenance of the palace is taken out of their hands and given over to the same people that look after the Tower of London very well."
Source: The Crown Estate
Reports that Scotland's contribution to royal funding could be reduced by more than £1.5m if plans for further devolution go ahead have been dismissed by both the UK and Scottish governments.
A royal source quoted by the Press Association said there could be a cut if profits from the Crown Estate in Scotland are retained by the Scottish Parliament rather than the UK Parliament in a year's time.
And Buckingham Palace also said that to imply Scotland would not pay for the monarchy was "simply wrong".
A spokesman said: "We said explicitly that to imply Scotland would not pay for the Monarchy was simply wrong and we accept unreservedly the assurances of the Scottish Government that the Sovereign Grant will not be cut as a result of devolution of the Crown Estate."
But both the Scottish and UK governments said they did not expect devolution to have any negative impact on Scotland's contribution to funding the monarchy.
A UK Treasury spokesman said the sovereign grant would not be "adversely affected" by devolution.
First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon said claims Scotland would withhold money had "no basis in fact".
"By hook or by crook, whatever way is actually agreed to do this, Scotland will pay our full contribution to the sovereign grant.  There is no intention to cut our contribution," she added.


Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri praised his side's defensive performance after they frustrated Barcelona to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Barca failed to score over two legs as Juve advanced 3-0 on aggregate after a goalless draw at the Nou Camp.
"Barcelona not scoring over two legs is almost unheard of," said Allegri.
"They had more chances in Turin than they did tonight. The team defended very solidly."
Juventus join Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Monaco in Friday's last-four draw (from 11:00 BST).
Trailing 3-0 from the first leg, Barca managed only one shot on target as they failed to repeat their last-16 heroics when they overturned a 4-0 deficit to beat Paris St-Germain.
Juventus join Manchester United (2007-08) and Bayern Munich (2012-13) as one of only three teams that have stopped the Catalans scoring in both legs of a Champions League tie.
"It's a step forward, we deserved qualification against a top level team," added 49-year-old Italian Allegri.
"We did very well defensively, less in attack because we failed to make the most of some very promising counter-attacks by missing some simple passes.
"However, it was a decisive step on the road to Cardiff."
Barcelona, who have gone out at the quarter-final stage in successive seasons, face La liga leaders Real Madrid in El Clasico on Sunday (19:45 BST).
Real are three points ahead of Barca with a game in hand.
"We tried with all our might, but we couldn't find the route to goal," said Barca boss Luis Enrique, who has announced he is leaving the club at the end of the season.
"We played a very poor first half in Turin and that has cost us dearly."


Google has formed a coalition with carmakers and taxi-hailing companies to help steer the regulations needed to make self-drive cars a reality.

Including Ford, Volvo, Uber and Lyft, it will lobby lawmakers and regulators on some of the legal barriers.
Former US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official David Strickland will be its spokesman.
The coalition also aims to convince the public of the benefits of driverless cars.
"Self-driving technology will enhance public safety and mobility for the elderly and disabled, reduce traffic congestion, improve environmental quality, and advance transportation efficiency," the group said in a statement.
Fully autonomous vehicles are not legal under current regulations, and California is considering barring self-drive cars that do not have:
Google has opposed the move and wants to avoid a patchwork of differing state regulations.
In a Senate hearing on autonomous vehicles, Google's self-driving cars chief, Chris Urmson, pointed out 23 states already had a total of 53 pieces of legislation related to the topic.
The NHTSA is due to release guidance on self-drive vehicles to states and policymakers in July.
In February, it said the system behind a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, which was seen as a major step towards rubber-stamping fully autonomous vehicles.
Last year, there were 33,000 fatalities on American roads, according to the US Department of Transport.
Human error caused 94% of road accidents, and car crashes were the leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds, it said.
In China, a university group backed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is drawing up a plan for self-drive cars that could see autonomous vehicles on city streets within three to five years.
It will include technical standards, a common language for cars to communicate with each other as well as regulatory guidelines.


The chairman of the Scottish Police Authority has said Aberdeen's emergency control room will only be closed if it is safe to do so.

The move is part of Police Scotland's cost-cutting plan to centralise control rooms.
If a decision is taken at a board meeting on 22 March it is thought likely that the centre will close quickly afterwards.
SPA chairman Andrew Flanagan said he had been consulting widely on the move.
He told BBC Scotland: "I think there are a number of local concerns about the closure. It's important we take account of local concerns.
"We need an assurance it's going to be effective."


Scarlets held on for a famous European Champions Cup victory over Toulon, whose Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny missed a last-minute penalty which would have won the game.

Scott Williams went over for the only try in the opening period and the hosts led 16-9 at the break.
Home fly-half Rhys Patchell kicked 17 points.
Halfpenny scored all of the visitors' points, but his late, long-range miss was one of four failed shots at goal.
In beating Toulon for the first time in four attempts, Scarlets kept their qualification hopes alive, albeit with Pool 3 leaders and defending champions Saracens beating Sale later in the day.
Toulon's losing bonus point ensured they stayed second behind champions Saracens with Scarlets third, two points behind the French club.
The hosts dictated the pace for most of the opening period and were rewarded when the pressure on Toulon's defence earned Patchell the chance to open the scoring with a penalty.
Better followed as Wales centre Williams finished off a sweeping move, with Hadleigh Parkes twice involved before Aaron Shingler provided the scoring pass.
But with a 58%-42% advantage in possession, the hosts missed several chances.
Wings DTH van der Merwe and Steffan Evans went close from cross-kicks, and scrum-half Gareth Davies could not hold on to an offload as he crossed the line.
Patchell kicked three penalties to go with his conversion of the try, including punishing Toulon after a flare-up under the visitors' posts.
However, Halfpenny kicked three penalties in the opening period to keep Toulon in the game.
Patchell and Halfpenny exchanged penalties early in the second half.
But just as Toulon's forward power began to take its toll, the indiscipline that had already been apparent struck again as replacement prop Florian Fresia was sin-binned for lifting Shingler's head at a maul.
Halfpenny made amends for his earlier misses to put Toulon within four points after an hour.
The visitors dominated the latter stages, but mirrored the hosts' failures when chances came their way.
It was left to Halfpenny, who former club Cardiff Blues want to re-sign, to reward their efforts.
But he was left furious with himself for one miss, and dejected as his final attempt drifted wide and fell short.
Visiting fly-half Pierre Bernard also fluffed a late drop-goal chance before the Welshman's final, futile effort.
Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac told BBC Radio Wales:
"It's fantastic to see because in games like this, we don't get opportunities too often and to play the side with the experience and the history that Toulon have got in winning this competition.
"It's a special time and I am pleased for the players that have done all their hard work that they have got something out of it.
"It would have been pretty cruel if we had lost it at the death."
Scarlets: Liam Williams; DTH van der Merwe, Hadleigh Parkes, Scott Williams, Steff Evans; Rhys Patchell, Gareth Davies; Rob Evans, Ken Owens [c], Samson Lee, Jake Ball, Tadhg Beirne, Aaron Shingler, Will Boyde, John Barclay.
Replacements: Ryan Elias, Wyn Jones, Werner Kruger, Lewis Rawlins, Josh Macleod, Jonathan Evans, Aled Thomas, Gareth Owen.
Toulon: Leigh Halfpenny; James O'Connor, Mathieu Bastareaud, Ma'a Nonu, Bryan Habana; Pierre Bernard, Jonathan Pelissie; Xavier Chiocci, Guilhem Guirado, Levan Chilachava, Mamuka Gorgodze, Romain Taofifenua, Charles Ollivon, Juandre Kruger, Duane Vermeulen.
Replacement: Jean-Charles Orioli, Florian Fresia, Marcel Van Der Merwe, Juan Fernandez Lobbe, Jocelino Suta, Maxime Mermoz, Eric Escande, Samu Manoa.
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
Assistants: JP Doyle, Andrew Jackson (both England)
TMO: David Grashoff (England)
Citing commissioner: Tim Lowry (Ireland)


Players were forced to leave the pitch during Hertha Berlin's German Cup first round game at Hansa Rostock after fans let off flares and fireworks.

Third-tier Hansa said a flare was set off from the away end shortly after half-time, before the game was later suspended for 10 minutes.
Hertha Berlin added that the referee called both teams off the pitch for safety reasons in the 77th minute.
The Bundesliga side scored twice to win the game 2-0 after play resumed.


Flexible hospital visiting hours are to be introduced at four hospitals in south Wales.

From 13 April, patients on acute wards at Princess of Wales, Bridgend, Morriston and Singleton in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot Hospital can have visitors between 11:00 and 20:00 BST, seven days a week.
It is hoped the changes will make it easier for people to visit relatives.
The announcement follows a successful pilot at Neath Port Talbot Hospital.
Cheryl Jones, from Port Talbot, regularly visits her 82-year-old mother Glynis Andrews at Neath hospital and said the new hours meant her mother had lots of company during her eight-week hospital stay.
She said: "It has been really good. I can keep mum company for as long as she likes. It is much better than just having a short visiting time in the evenings."
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (ABMU) Health Board said its paediatrics, maternity, mental health, learning disabilities and intensive care wards will also have flexible visiting hours, but they will be based on each patient's needs.


All UK commercial passenger flights using the Airbus EC225LP helicopter - or Super Puma - have been grounded by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) following a fatal crash in Norway.

One Briton, 11 Norwegians and one Italian who were on board the Super Puma helicopter are presumed dead.
The CAA said the restriction did not apply to search and rescue flights.
BP and Statoil have also suspended the use of the aircraft model, so it is unable to carry oil and gas workers.
"Following the accident, the UK CAA has issued an instruction to stop any commercial passenger flights by UK operators flying the Airbus EC225LP helicopter," a CAA statement said.
"This mirrors action taken by the Norwegian CAA."
Mick Borwell, of trade association Oil & Gas UK, said it would work with helicopter operators to support offshore operations and its workforce during the period of investigation.
Super Pumas are responsible for many of the 140,000 helicopter passenger flights in the UK each year, but the CAA was not able to provide a breakdown of exactly how many.
The Super Puma that came down in Norway was flying from the Gullfaks oil field to Bergen, a centre for the North Sea oil and gas industry, when it crashed near the small island of Turoey.
A major rescue operation was launched but ended within hours of the crash. No survivors were found.
Reports say the helicopter was destroyed.
The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch is sending a team to Norway because it has investigated a number of crashes involving helicopters operating to and from offshore oil and gas fields in recent years.
In 2012, EC225 Super Puma helicopters crashed in two incidents in Scotland - one off Aberdeen and another off Shetland - that were both blamed on gearbox problems.
In both cases, all passengers and crew were rescued. EC225s in the UK were grounded following the crashes but given the go-ahead to resume flying in 2013.
Source: http://www.airbushelicopters.com/website/en/ref/H225_40.html


From throwing an egg at Winston Churchill, to a huge suffrage march in Edinburgh, to the horrors of force-feeding, Scotland's suffragettes and the more gradualist suffragists were an important part of the fight for women's votes.

As the film "Suffragette," opens in British cinemas there is renewed attention on that struggle, one in which Scotland played a vital part.
"For a long time the suffrage movement, as far as history is concerned was located in London and the national leadership was located there too," says Dr Norman Watson, a journalist and historian who has researched the suffragettes for 30 years.
But he points to the fact that Edinburgh had one of the earliest suffrage societies in the 1870s and by the period after 1905 Scotland was "punching above its weight" in the struggle for votes.
There were plenty of opportunities to confront the establishment with then prime minister Herbert Asquith having his constituency in Fife and Winston Churchill as an MP for Dundee.
He continues: "So with the militant women pledging to argue at every by-election at which the Liberal party stood because the Liberal party kept refusing them votes, this really catapulted the militancy episode into Scotland and all parts of Scotland were involved."
When Churchill came to stand in Dundee in 1908 he was followed by 27 of the national leaders of women's suffrage movements. At one point he even hid in a shed and tried to hold a meeting there.
There had been lots of campaigning for the vote towards the end of the 19th Century mainly using methods such at petitions, writing letters and badgering members of parliament.
That changed in 1903 with the establishment by the Pankhursts, and others, of the Women's Social and Political Union. A branch was opened in Glasgow in 1906 and by 1908 its Scottish headquarters had been opened in the city.
"At first the suffragettes tend to go down to England in order to commit some of the more militant acts," says Prof Sarah Pedersen of Robert Gordon University who is writing a book on the Scottish suffragettes.
"We don't really get much militant suffrage activity going on Scotland until a couple of years before the First World War but once they get started they do quite a lot of damage."
She points to the burning down of buildings, the grandstands at Ayr and Perth racecourses, the pouring of acid in post boxes to destroy the mail or burning the slogan 'votes for women' into the greens of golf courses with acid.
"One of the things to note is that they were very careful not to actually harm or kill anyone with all these fires, the places they set fire to were empty. What they were hoping for was that the landowners and the insurance companies would put pressure on the government to give women the vote," she continues.
A important point for the movement in Scotland was a big rally in Edinburgh in 1909.
It was led by the formidable Flora Drummond, riding on horseback. A key figure in the movement, she had grown up in Arran.
Edinburgh had a rather less positive claim to fame too though. It was here that the suffragette Ethel Moorhead became the first in Scotland to be force-fed, a practice which came later north of the border.
"There were two prisons in Scotland that did force feed," says Donna Moore of the Glasgow Women's Library.
"One was Edinburgh," she continues "although slightly reluctantly, but the main one was Perth and, in fact, when there was a royal visit to Perth there were signs outside saying welcome to your majesty's torture chamber in Perth prison."
Ms Moore is fascinated by the stories of suffragettes, stories which she feels deserve to be better known.
Earlier in the year a group of women took part in a public art event, called "March of Women", from the Glasgow Women's Library to Glasgow Green.
The idea was to celebrate women's history and achievements, past and present. The site was chosen as the green had been the venue for many rallies and marches by both suffragettes and suffragists.
World War One is often credited with bringing some women the vote in 1918. But Norman Watson says "in many respects we forget about the valuable work that the constitutionalists did, the non-militant women".
He reckons there were perhaps 100 plus militant suffragettes in Scotland, but thousands who were pursuing similar aims but by different means.
"My view is that by 1914 when the worst of the forcible feeding was happening I think we were heading towards the government giving in, and I actually think the women might have got the vote in 1916, two years before they did."


The Supreme Court has announced it is split on President Barack Obama’s plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants living illegally in the US.

The divide comes as a blow to the president's 2014 executive action which he enacted without Congress and will now be assessed in a lower court.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan applauded the news, saying only Congress should write laws.
But the president said the deadlock was "heartbreaking" for millions of people.
"They are Americans in every way but on paper," he said at the White House, adding that reform will happen, sooner or later.
"Congress is not going to be able to ignore America forever," he said.
Texas led 26 Republican-led states in challenging the programme, which would have given the right to work to millions of people.
The deadlock between the eight judges was only possible because of the death of the ninth, Justice Antonin Scalia, leaving a vacancy that is still unfilled.
This is the first tied decision produced by the court, as the Senate continues to block Mr Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland.
The deadlocked decision in US v Texas is the clearest example to date of the impact that Justice Antonin Scalia's death has had on the US Supreme Court - and, consequently, on the direction of US public policy writ large.
The court's inability to find a majority either supporting President Barack Obama's unilateral executive action on immigration or striking it down means the whole controversy heads back into the lap of a lower-level conservative judge in Texas.
While those judicial gears slowly grind away, the US has a presidential election to conduct in just over four months.
If the Senate continues to drag its feet on confirming Mr Obama's pick for the high court, Merrick Garland, the next president could not only set US immigration policy but also pick the justice who will likely be the deciding vote if and when those decisions once again reach the Supreme Court.
Given that US voters are choosing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the disposition of the immigration issue for generations to come is in the balance. As if the stakes in the US presidential election weren't high enough already.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) initiatives had been on hold since 2015 as the court considered the programmes' legality.
DAPA was considered particularly controversial as it allows the parents of US citizens and permanent residents to remain in the county for up to three years and apply for work permits.
Lawyers for the state of Texas argued that state governments would be overburdened by having to spend more on public services with the addition of the undocumented residents.
The lack of ruling leaves the legal status of about four million undocumented immigrants in limbo.
President Obama's unilateral action would have allowed migrants to obtain work permits and would block them from deportation while their citizenship status was being determined by lawmakers.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton called the courts deadlocked opinion "unacceptable" and said that immigrants "enrich our communities and contribute to our economy every day".
"We should be doing everything possible under the law to provide them relief from the spectre of deportation," Mrs Clinton said in a statement.
Republican lawmaker Paul Ryan applauded the Supreme Court for making "the president's executive action on immigration null and void".
"The Constitution is clear: The president is not permitted to write laws, only Congress is."
Mr Ryan, the top-ranking elected Republican, is at odds with the party's presidential nominee-to-be Donald Trump over his plans to build a wall on the southern border paid for by Mexico.


Luton Town goalkeeper Craig King has extended his loan spell at Southport until the end of the season.

The 20-year-old joined the National League side at the start of March on a one-month loan deal.
He has played two games for the Sandgrounders since joining, including making his debut against Maidstone United.
King recently spent time on loan at National League South outfit Bishop's Stortford.


For good or ill, 2016 in Northern Ireland turned out to be Arlene Foster's year.

She took over from Peter Robinson as first minister early in January.
Foster ensured her party, the DUP, emerged from the Assembly elections in May as Stormont's biggest party on the back of a highly personal campaign.
But in the background a controversy about the mismanagement of a renewable energy scheme she set up in 2012 rumbled away.
It finally fully grabbed the public's attention via a BBC Spotlight programme in early December.
That, in turn, led to bitter divisions within her party being exposed by a BBC Nolan show investigation.
Mrs Foster fought off a demand that she should be excluded from office only because the Stormont rules would have required her own DUP MLAs to back it.
When the Fermanagh MLA took over the helm at the DUP the party bosses had good reason to think they had chosen wisely.
Peter Robinson's health problems and his need to combat questions about his handling of the controversial £1bn Nama property deal could be consigned to history.
Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness set about providing the Stormont Executive with a fresh image to go alongside their "Fresh Start" agreement.
They promised to deliver services better for the public and attempted to banish the memory of 2015's crises over welfare reform, IRA activity and DUP ministers engaging in "rolling resignations".
Despite some differences - for example over Mrs Foster's reluctance to engage in any commemoration which could be construed as celebrating the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising - the two main parties remained closely in step.
When they fought the Assembly election in May, the DUP did play the card of telling the voters to keep Mrs Foster in place as a Unionist first minister.
But there were similarities in aspects of the DUP and Sinn Féin manifestoes - both promised the same £1bn increase in health spending.
When the results came in, the DUP held on to 38 seats - seen as success given the difficulties of the previous year.
The Ulster Unionists had hoped to close the gap on the DUP, but they also ended up with the same number of MLAs as in 2011.
Their leader Mike Nesbitt publically admitted the 16 seats they had won didn't match the 18 -19 target figure he had set himself, written in a sealed envelope which he opened live on BBC TV after the results were declared.
Sinn Féin did not close the gap on the DUP, but fell back one.
Against a backdrop of austerity, they lost out not to the SDLP - which saw its Assembly team shrink by two - but to new kids on the block, People Before Profit, who promised voters a left wing opposition to government cuts. The Greens also gained a seat.
The Ulster Unionists pulled out of the Stormont Executive in 2015 in protest over the IRA linked murder of Kevin McGuigan.
After the May 2016 election, the UUP decided to stay in opposition taking advantage of new rules introduced by the Fresh Start Agreement, which provided some finance and enhanced speaking rights to an "Official Opposition".
The SDLP also declined the ministry it was entitled to, much to the anger of Sinn Féin who accused it of going against the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.
There was a question mark over whether Alliance would stay in the coalition, by holding on to the justice department previously headed by its leader David Ford.
The party decided to use its leverage to demand further changes to the Stormont system - most notably the petition of concern, which had been used by the DUP to block the introduction of same sex marriage.
However, the DUP and Sinn Féin were not prepared to accede to Alliance's demands. Instead they turned to the independent unionist Claire Sugden, who held on to her East Londonderry seat.
She kept reporters in suspense over whether she would take the job - her difficult decision was compounded by a family tragedy, as Ms Sugden's brother-in-law was critically injured in a motorbike accident.
But eventually Ms Sugden said yes to the DUP-Sinn Fein offer, adding that she hoped to achieve change on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage in what she called "a subtle way".
So was born a new look coalition, dominated by two parties, who seemed determined to make their honeymoon last as long as possible.
Alliance joined the others in opposition and in October David Ford decided the time was right to hand over the reins.
His deputy Naomi Long had lost her East Belfast seat in the House of Commons in 2015.
But freshly elected to Stormont she was the obvious candidate and got the job without any contest.
Mrs Long's challenge will be to make Alliance's voice heard even though, unlike the UUP and the SDLP, the party is not entitled to any of the benefits of being part of an "Official Opposition".
Moral issues have remained prominent throughout the year.
In January, the Alliance MLAs Stewart Dickson and Trevor Lunn tried to change the law on abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.
They lost out due to opposition from the DUP, TUV and SDLP.
Instead an expert working group was set up to look at the sensitive subject. The BBC understands they have recommended a change in the law.
However, the Executive has yet to clarify its response.
Campaigners for same-sex marriage continued to call for the law to be brought into line with the rest of the UK.
They won a victory in the courts, in a battle over a bakery's refusal to provide a cake decorated with a pro-gay marriage slogan.
However, it's clear they will find little comfort at the Assembly, with Arlene Foster making it clear she will use the petition of concern to block any attempt to legalise same-sex marriage this side of the next election, which is due in 2021.
The two main parties together with Claire Sugden maintained greater discipline than the previous coalition - but one obvious difference between them was the EU referendum in June: The DUP campaigned for leaving the EU, whilst Sinn Féin wanted to remain.
Like the pundits, most Stormont politicians probably imagined once the campaign ended the UK would end up staying in the EU.
But whilst Northern Ireland voted 56% in favour of staying, the UK as a whole decided by 52% to leave.
Given the movement of thousands of people across the border on a daily basis it seems obvious Brexit could have a more immediate practical impact on Northern Ireland than any other part of the UK.
Theresa May replaced her namesake Theresa Villiers with a new Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire to handle the sensitive task of resolving the border conundrum.
By the end of the year the public became familiar with the government mantra that there would be "no return to the borders of the past", yet there was no detail on how the post-Brexit border would operate.
The referendum result left the two main parties at Stormont also having to manage their Brexit differences.
Martin McGuinness and Arlene Foster signed a joint letter to Theresa May which appeared to put the DUP very much on the soft end of the Brexit camp.
However, maintaining a common position is likely to become more difficult as the consequences unfold in the real world.
The Nama property scandal was a big running story in 2015 and it still had a lot of life left in it in 2016 - most notably the revelation in August of behind the scenes contacts between the former finance committee chair Sinn Féin's Daithi McKay and the loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson.
Mr Bryson had used a high profile appearance in front of Mr McKay's committee to implicate the former First Minister Peter Robinson in the scandal - something Mr Robinson strenuously denied.
After a series of messages between Mr McKay, Mr Bryson and another Sinn Féin member emerged, the North Antrim MLA resigned.
He admitted his behaviour had been inappropriate - he has recently resurfaced as a commentator but the police are still investigating the matter.
It seemed hard to top Nama for Stormont scandals - but at the end of the year a couple of other stories threatened to do just that.
The Executive came under pressure over its Social Investment Fund (SIF), an initiative designed to improve life in  disadvantaged areas.
Ministers defended giving a grant to a UDA-linked community group in east Belfast, but faced embarrassment when its Chief Executive, Dee Stitt, also a leading UDA member, gave an outspoken interview to the Guardian newspaper proclaiming that his band provided "homeland security" in its neighbourhood.
Then in December, a controversy ignited over a Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme (RHI).
The saga had been, quite literally, burning away for years - but a Spotlight programme highlighted the scale of the potential loss to the Stormont budget of £400m over 20 years and a BBC Nolan show investigation opened up a massive public crack within the DUP over the handling of the scheme with the former minister Jonathan Bell and the DUP leader Arlene Foster trading blows on our TV screens.
As the minister who signed off on the scheme, Mrs Foster ended the year as a firefighter trying to beat down flames only to find them erupting elsewhere.
She lost a no confidence vote by 39 votes to 36, but under the Stormont cross-community rules remains in post.
The DUP's handling of the matter, however, ended the last vestiges of any honeymoon between Mrs Foster and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
It also weakened the position of the Stormont Speaker Robin Newton, widely viewed as less competent in his handling of the chamber than his predecessors.
Despite Sinn Féin calls for her to step aside temporarily, Arlene Foster seems determined to hang on as first minister. However, there must be a question mark about her partner in power Martin McGuinness.
He had to pull out of a visit to China in December, due to as yet unspecified health problems.
After the Irish election back in February 2016, Sinn Féin emerged as the third biggest party in the Dáil - an influential role given the deal between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
However, Mr Adams ended the year under renewed pressure over his contacts with the family of murdered prison officer Brian Stack.
The Sinn Féin president has survived so many controversies that it is always unwise to write his obituary.
But Martin McGuinness has acknowledged that both he and Gerry Adams cannot continue for ever, and it may be that the deputy first minister's health issues hasten the talk of a transition in Sinn Féin's leadership team.


Critics have given a lukewarm reaction to Elf the Musical, the West End version of the hit 2003 comedy film.

Jesus Christ Superstar lead Ben Forster appears as Buddy the elf with former Girls Aloud singer Kimberley Walsh as his love interest Jovie.
The production made headlines earlier this year when it was revealed to be the most expensive West End show, with top tickets at Â£240 each.
The Telegraph described the show as "magic for a steep price".
Critic Dominic Cavendish said: "This is bound to make a lot of kids very happy even if leaves a lot of parents very broke."
Although he said the production "feels generic", he had much praise for Forster - playing the role made famous by Will Ferrell on the big screen.
The musical - which first ran on Broadway - retells the story of a 30-year-old man who is brought up as one of Santa's elves, but travels to New York to meet his real father when he discovers he is human.
"He's no Ferrell, but this perfect specimen of arrested masculine development still twinkles cutely, brightly, sweetly," Cavendish said.
In his three-star review, The Stage's Mark Shenton said the show was an "amiable, good-natured seasonal show", but was an "overpriced Christmas spectacle".
He also praised Forster's performance, but added: "Other parts are a bit two-dimensional by comparison, but Kimberley Walsh as the improbably loveless love interest, Joe McGann as Elf's real-life father and Jessica Martin as his perky step-mother are enjoyably likeable."
The Daily Mail's Quentin Letts described the show as "reasonably entertaining", but "left me a little cold".
Meanwhile, What's On Stage criticised the production's "horribly bland plot", with "surprisingly forgettable songs".
But it added Forster was show's "saving grace", saying: "He delivers the jokes for the adults with a dead-pan innocence and he can certainly sing. But it's the comedy that he excels at here, and which will woo even the most bah humbug of audience members."
The Arts Desk was most scathing in its review, saying the musical was not worth the cost of its top priced ticket.
"It's calculatedly middle-of-the-road, a trait exacerbated by this uninspired British production, lacking the power and pizzazz that apparently made the Broadway version palatable," it said.
"It's both too simplistic and too long (a stodgy two and a half hours) to demand the attention of younger viewers, and, aside from a bluesy number featuring disillusioned store Santas and an animal rights gag, there's precious little for parents."
Elf runs at the Dominion Theatre until 2 January.


Kevin Spacey has quashed rumours that he could feature as a villain in the next James Bond film, due for release in 2015.

"I don't know why people keep writing about this," said Spacey.
"I've been offered no role, I've never read a script, no, I am not doing the next James Bond movie."
Director Sam Mendes is returning to take charge of the 24th Bond film, following the enormous success of 2012's Skyfall.
"I don't know who started the rumour but stop it," Spacey told BBC News.
Skyfall became the highest grossing film of all time at the UK box office, and took more than $1bn globally.
Spacey worked with British director Mendes on the 1999 Oscar-winning film American Beauty and the pair reunited for the Bridge Project's 2011 staging of Shakespeare's Richard III.
"Obviously if he (Mendes) wanted me he would've offered me the role," Spacey continued.
"I don't even know if there is a role frankly."
Spacey's recent Shakespearean role, under the direction of Mendes, can currently be seen in the documentary Now: In the Wings on a World Stage.
The film tracks the cast of players of Richard III starting in London, taking in Doha, Singapore, Sydney, Naples and moving to other cities around the world before ending in New York.
The decision to make a cinematic documentary rather than film the stage play was a simple one, according to Spacey - who is currently on stage in the one-man show Clarence Darrow, which marks the end of his 10-year tenure as artistic director of London's Old Vic theatre.
"Well, it's not that we didn't want to film the play," he explained.
"We just couldn't raise the money. That's the honest answer to that."
The political drama House of Cards is also returning for a third series on Netflix, with Spacey in the lead role of Frank Underwood.
He has admitted to having "no idea" how long that series will continue but added he is "enjoying it very much".
"It seems that audiences are as well, so you know, I see no reason why it can't go on for a while."
Now: In the Wings on a World Stage is in cinemas from 9 June and available to download from 10 June via nowthefilm.com


Tom Rogic insists Celtic won't be distracted by the Scottish Cup final, as they prepare to face their showpiece opponents Aberdeen on Friday.

Brendan Rodgers' side face the Dons at Hampden on 27 May, bidding to complete a domestic treble.
Celtic have already sealed the Premiership title, and overcame Aberdeen to lift the League Cup.
"It's easy not to look ahead to the cup final," midfielder Rogic said.
"We have big games between now and then and we just focus on the next one.
"Regardless of the way the match goes, I don't think it's going to have too much effect on the cup final. It [the final] is a one-off match, high-pressure and anything can happen, so I don't think you can look too much into it."
En route to both the league and League Cup triumphs, Celtic have not lost a fixture, and are four matches - three in the Premiership, and the Scottish Cup final - away from completing an unbeaten domestic campaign.
Rogic says the smooth rotation of the squad, where fringe players have performed well when brought into the side, has been key to preserving their run of form.
"There have been boys who haven't been involved in matches, haven't been on the bench, haven't been in squads, that have been training and working as hard, if not harder, than everyone else," added the Australian international.
"That's been a big reason for the success this season.
"The manager's changed the way the club is as a whole - if you look at the way we're playing throughout the year, players who aren't playing are working hard and coming into the team when they haven't been playing so much, and it's been an easy transition.
"Players like Dedryck [Boyata] who hasn't been involved so much in one part of the season can still come in and play a massive part in contributing to the club's success.
"It's healthy for the squad. The boys have done very well throughout the whole year, whoever steps in."


Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero is set for a month out with a hamstring injury suffered on international duty.

The 27-year-old, who scored five goals in City's win against Newcastle last weekend, lasted just 22 minutes of Argentina's defeat to Ecuador.
"I think I'll be a month without playing," Aguero told TyC Sports in Buenos Aires.
City's problems increased on Friday as David Silva came off in Spain's 4-0 win over Luxembourg with a sprained ankle.
The 29-year-old midfielder hobbled off early in the first half as a result of a challenge by midfielder Lars Gerson. Spain manager Vicente del Bosque said he had no timeline on a return for Silva.
Aguero could miss four Premier League games - including the first Manchester derby of the season on 25 October - and two Champions League fixtures against Sevilla.
His absence leaves City with just Wilfried Bony as a recognised central striker, with youngster Kelechi Iheanacho in reserve.
See all of City's fixtures here.


An explosion has struck a public health college in Nigeria's second city of Kano, in the north, killing at least eight people, police say.

At least 20 others were wounded in the blast at the Kano School of Hygiene.
The city has been targeted in the past by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, which aims to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
Three states to the east of Kano are under a government-imposed emergency after years of militant attacks.
Kano State police spokesman Magaji Majiya, who confirmed the attack, said eight people had been killed and many others with horrific injuries had been taken to hospital for treatment.
The BBC's Mansur Liman, in the capital Abuja, says the blast occurred as students were struggling to meet a deadline to register for the new academic session.
He says the area has been cordoned off and emergency services are continuing to take the injured to hospital.
One person has been arrested, according to the police.
A teacher at the college told the AFP news agency that the blast seemed to originate from a car park next to the post-secondary training school.
The latest incident comes less than a week after some 21 people were killed in a bomb blast outside a shop in Yobe state where people had gathered to watch a World Cup match.
Public screenings of the World Cup in some parts of Nigeria have been banned because of threats by Boko Haram, who want to overthrow the government.
Boko Haram - which means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language - captured international attention in April after it abducted more than 200 girls in Chibok in Borno state.
The states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa have been under a state of emergency since May 2013. Thousands have died in the north-east since Boko Haram launched an insurgency in 2009.
Nigeria's military has promised increased security but there are still daily reports of attacks on villages in parts of the north-east.
Kano is the largest city in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria.
In January 2012, about 150 people died in a series of co-ordinated attacks in the city by Boko Haram.


A senior figure in the Muslim Council of Britain says a key government anti-terrorism strategy has "failed".

Deputy secretary general Harun Khan told BBC Radio 5 live the Prevent scheme was having a "negative impact".
The scheme seeks to lessen the influence of extremism - but Mr Khan said it alienated young Muslims and pushed them towards radical groups.
The government said it was supporting the vast majority of UK Muslims in combating extremism.
Prevent, which is part of the government's broader counter-terrorism strategy, aims to "stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism".
Work carried out as part of Prevent includes stopping "apologists for terrorism" coming to the UK, supporting community campaigns which oppose extremism and mentoring for individuals who are "at risk of being drawn into terrorist activity".
The strategy covers "all forms" of terrorism, including far-right extremism.
Mr Khan said Prevent had "really failed" when it came to Muslim communities, and said many young Muslims were "not interested in engaging for anything to do with Prevent".
"Most young people are seeing this [as] a target on them and the institutions they associate with," he said.
He said many felt they would be viewed by authorities as potential terrorists if they went to mosques or joined other organised Muslim groups.
Mr Khan said this left some people "lost and disenfranchised" and vulnerable to radicalisation.
"They will be picked up by the smaller groups, fringe elements, on the street and targeted specifically," he said.
He said the "bigger problem" was that many young Muslims were "disillusioned" but felt they could not express their views.
Mr Khan said people needed a "safe space" where they could "speak freely without being labelled as extremists".
"One of those views, as an example, is how do they respond to seeing continuous oppression of Muslims on the media, on the news, on the internet," he said.
He said the government only wanted to engage with people whose views matched their own.
Immigration and security minister James Brokenshire said the government was supporting "the vast majority of British Muslims in condemning those who advocate violence, intolerance and division".
"As part of our Prevent counter-terrorism programme we work with a wide range of organisations to raise awareness of the dangers of travelling to areas of conflict such as Syria and Iraq and the risk of exploitation by extremist groups."
Funding from Prevent has been given to:
As part of Prevent, the UK also works "closely with countries where those who support terrorism and promote extremism are most active", focusing on Pakistan, the Middle East and East Africa.
On Friday, Home Secretary Theresa May proposed changes to the law to tackle extremism and radicalisation in the UK.
She said she was "looking again at the case for new banning orders for extremist groups" and considering new civil powers to "target extremists who seek to radicalise others".


A newly-divorced father lured his two sons to his house with a new model train set before setting fire to the building, killing all three of them.

Darren Sykes, 44, from Penistone, South Yorkshire, died in the fire on October 22 along with Paul, nine. Jack, 12, died in hospital six days later.
Sheffield Coroner's Court heard that Mr Sykes had been divorced for two weeks.
Just before the fire started, he sent texts to six people saying he was "going to be at peace".
Det Sgt Stuart Hall, of South Yorkshire Police, said that on the day of the fire, Mr Sykes spent Â£600 on model railway equipment and sent texts to his sons telling them what he had bought.
"All I need now are two engine drivers," one of his messages read.
Mr Sykes was caught on CCTV buying petrol in portable containers from a filling station near his home in Tennyson Close before the fire started. Earlier, he had purchased other containers from Cortonwood Retail park in Brampton.
He returned home from the petrol station at 14:00 GMT and texted his sons, picking them up later from their grandmother's house in nearby Thurlstone, where they were living with his ex-wife, Clare.
As the boys played in the attic with the train set, Mr Sykes poured petrol around the house.
When they arrived, police found a chair had been placed under the handle of a door to prevent anyone from escaping.
Michael Mason, from South Yorkshire Fire Service, told the inquest into Mr Sykes' death that other entrances had been blocked to stop anyone getting out.
Before starting the fire, Mr Sykes was seen leaving home with a number of envelopes in his hand. Several people would later receive distressing letters containing "suicidal thoughts".
Mr Sykes also sent one to his bank, HSBC.
A CCTV camera on his house caught the fire starting just three seconds after he sent a series of texts telling people he was going to be "at peace".
Coroner Christopher Dorries said Mr Sykes died from inhaling the by-products of the flames. He recorded a verdict of suicide.


Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce says that he does not want to see his old club Birmingham relegated from the Championship, but is still "desperate" to win Sunday's Second City derby.

Former Blues boss Bruce has "great memories" of the four derby wins he enjoyed over Villa when they first got promoted to the Premier League in 2002.
But he has only one priority now as Villa manager - and that is winning.
"I want Blues to stay up but I want to beat them this Sunday," he told BBC WM.
"I'm one of the privileged few who've managed both clubs. But my allegiance is to the club who employ me and I have to remain professional.
"I will be desperate to turn them over just as like I would be if I was in the opposing dug-out."
Added to two draws in the 2003-04 season, Bruce's Blues initially went unbeaten in his side's first six derby games with Villa before they then lost twice to David O'Leary's team in 2005-06.
That was capped by a key Easter Sunday 3-1 defeat, highlighted by a stunning Gary Cahill overhead kick, which helped send Bruce's side down.
When the two sides met again, in November 2007, a 2-1 home defeat by Martin O'Neill's Villa proved to be his last game before he resigned in disillusionment at the way the club was being run in the middle of a long-drawn-out takeover to join Wigan Athletic.
While Bruce bowed out from Blues with a derby game at St Andrew's, it book-ends Sunday's derby quite nicely that Harry Redknapp should be beginning his reign as Birmingham City boss in the reverse fixture at Villa Park.
With three games left, prior to Saturday's games, Blues were three points clear of trouble after an awful run of just two wins in 24 matches since making the decision to replace Gary Rowett with Gianfranco Zola in December.
"With the predicament Blues already find themselves in, and with Harry now coming in, it adds that extra bit of spice," Bruce told BBC Sport.
"Overnight, a manager goes and someone like Harry comes back in. If they wanted to add some spice, then, Harry being Harry, they've got it. Even at 70, you can see he's still got that enthusiasm. It never leaves you.
"They'll need that bounce too as it looks like they'll need a win in one of their last three games.
"They've been on a tough run but I'm sure he's confident he can keep them up.
"He's wonderfully experienced. He and Steve Cotterill will try and breathe a bit of confidence into them."
Steve Bruce knows better than most what it means to be turned down by his country.
Largely regarded as one of the best uncapped players never to play for England, he was then interviewed for the job of manager when Roy Hodgson stood down last summer, only for the Football Association to opt for the ill-fated appointment of Sam Allardyce instead.
Had Bruce been in charge of the FA, it would have been Redknapp's job and not Hodgson's in the first place, back in 2012.
"He made a very good Tottenham manager and, in many people's eyes, and mine too, I thought he was a stick-on for the England job," said Bruce.
"No disrespect to Roy Hodgson. who is another very good football man but, we all thought Harry deserved it.
"It didn't go his way, for whatever reason. But nobody would have denied him the chance because of what he's done for the game.
"His teams always play in the right way and are attractive to watch, he always produces very good players and he's just a really, really good football man. I'm glad to see him back.
"He might be 70, but he's still got that sparkle about him. I don't know if he had retired or not but his enthusiasm is there for all to see. It's in his blood. "
Traditionally, and still a big talking point for older fans, Aston Villa's main rivals in the West Midlands have always been West Bromwich Albion, as well as another founder member of the Football League, Wolves.
That all changed when Blues returned to the top flight under Bruce in 2002, to help rekindle the second city derby, for the first time since Villa won promotion from the old Division Two at the first attempt under Graham Taylor in 1988.
"There'd been no derby for 15 years before that, which added to it," said Bruce. "And I was shocked at the ferocity of it.
"You can talk about the great derbies, the North East derby and the Glasgow derby. But this is always a great derby too. This is a big occasion for the supporters of both teams."
And he has a double message to both fans and players. "There's a rivalry," he said. "But let's not take it past that. This is the second city of this country. Go and roar your head off, go and have your beers, but leave it at that.
"And, on the pitch, it's about the ones who can handle the pressure in a huge atmosphere. You get carried away with the game and do stupid things. You just hope it's a bit of individual magic that wins the game and not a mistake.
"We had a bad Easter weekend. We made more mistakes at Fulham than we had in two months. "If we can stop that, we'll give ourselves a chance."
Steve Bruce was talking to BBC Sport's Mark Regan and Pat Murphy


No education budget means parents will have to pay for after-school activities and music provision, the principal of one Northern Ireland primary school has warned.

Kevin Donaghy, from St Ronan's Primary School in Newry called the situation faced by the school a "crisis".
In a letter to parents, he said politicians had failed to "put aside old animosities and work for the benefit of our children".
He also warned of "devastating cuts".
"It was widely hoped that the different political parties would, for the betterment of all, be able to put aside their differences," he wrote.
"Unfortunately we see that this continued failure to reach an agreement means that education will now not have a budget."
The letter - headed "schools in financial crisis due to NI Executive failure to set a budget for education" - has been sent to the parents of all 390 pupils in the school.
In it, Mr Donaghy told parents that he has to make a further £46,000 of cuts in 2017-18, having already saved £30,000 in 2016-17.
"The amount of money we have to run and maintain the school has been dramatically decreased," he wrote.
He said that this would mean the school would have to reduce "special education support and classroom assistant support".
"We will have to ask you to financially contribute to programs such as after-school programmes and our music, which we as a school have paid in the past," he said.
"We can no longer afford to do this."
Mr Donaghy said that he will have to end Spanish lessons for all pupils if the school parents association cannot raise the money to pay for them.
He also told parents that the school would gets less funding as fewer than 30% of its pupils are entitled to free school meals.
"The money we now receive from the Department of Education will not cover our expenditure," he wrote.
"Within three years, unless funding is dramatically increased, we as a school will be in substantial deficit."
St Ronan's Primary School currently receives annual funding of more than £1m from the Department of Education (DE).
It has been able to balance its books and remain within budget in recent years.
However, a separate document published by DE shows that the school is forecast to be in the red by £47,000 in the 2018-19 school year.
Last month, all schools were told that they faced "an extremely challenging budgetary position in 2017-18".
The warning came in a letter from the finance director at the Department of Education, Gary Fair.


A total of 81 expectant mothers were turned away from a labour ward at a hospital last year due to staff shortages, the BBC has learned.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request found the maternity ward at the Royal Berkshire Hospital was closed on 47 occasions last year.
The hospital delivers about 500 babies a month, but some pregnant women had to be "diverted" to other hospitals.
The Royal Berkshire said midwife recruitment was improving.
Rebecca Pullen who was turned away from the Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) last year, said she was told the labour ward was "completely closed".
She was driven to a maternity unit in High Wycombe before eventually being driven back to the RBH.
She said: "When it's your first baby, it's terrifying - you don't know what's going to happen, you don't know where you're going to have your baby.
"And the fact my birth plan wasn't taken into account wasn't ideal."
Up to 13% of midwife posts at the RBH were vacant in March 2016, while the annual spend on agency midwives rose from Â£10,221 in 2014 -2015 to Â£198,170 in 2015-2016.
Nationally, the recommended consultant cover for a maternity unit that delivers more than 5,000 births a year is 168 hours a week.
Consultant cover at the RBH in 2014 was between 68 to 91 hours per week, a recent Care Quality Commission inspection found.
Gill Valentine, director of midwifery at the hospital, said the RBH had recruited a number of "high calibre" new staff and expected to achieve the recommended 168 hours of consultant cover in 2016.
"I accept we divert more frequently than we'd like to, but the only reason we do that is to maintain the safety of the mums and babies and that is of paramount importance," she said.


BBC presenter Andrew Marr blames his recent stroke on overworking and an overly vigorous exercise session on a rowing machine.

The 53-year-old said he had, to his detriment, believed the newspapers... that we must take very, very intensive exercise in short bursts for good health.
So should we now leave high-intensity training to only the youngest and fittest people?
People of all ages can have a stroke, although they occur most commonly in people who are older.
More than 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke each year and a quarter of them are under 65.
Most of the time there will be underlying health problems like having high blood pressure.
And there are simple lifestyle changes that you can make to reduce your risk of stroke.
These include keeping fit by doing regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, refraining from smoking and making sure you don't drink too much alcohol.
Doctors say that regular exercise can halve your risk of stroke.
About 30 minutes of activity five days a week is enough. And you do not have to do it all in one go - it is just as effective to exercise a few times a day in 10, 15 or 20-minute sessions.
But in terms of intensity, erring on the side of caution might be best.
Advocates of high-intensity interval training say doing a few short bursts of exercise each week - four 30-second sprints on an exercise bike, for example - is a good way to keep fit.
The idea is that pushing your body to its limit gives you a better workout.
Studies suggest that high-intensity interval training causes significant changes in a number of important health parameters, and more so than hours of conventional exercise.
It can boost aerobic fitness, as well as improve how the body's metabolic processes.
BBC presenter Dr Michael Mosley gave it a try himself and found some benefits.
But he does point out that high-intensity training will not suit everyone.
And, like any new exercise regime, if you have a pre-existing medical condition you should consult your doctor before trying it.
The Stroke Association also advise caution. They say it is important to find a balance between how hard the exercise is, how long you exercise for and how often you exercise.
You will benefit more from doing regular gentle exercise for a good length of time, than exercising very vigorously for a short length of time or infrequently, they say.
Nikki Hill, director of communications, said: "Regular exercise is an important factor in stroke prevention and recovery.
"We have heard anecdotally that some activities like vigorous exercise can sometimes cause blood vessels to burst.
"We need more research on the underlying factors that might make that happen. We do know that high blood pressure itself is the single biggest cause of stroke, until more research is done on specific triggers we'd suggest getting your blood pressure checked and taking steps to keep it under control, exercise can help with that."
There can be warning signs that a stroke is likely.
Andrew Marr says he had two minor strokes in the year before his major one, but had not noticed.
Many strokes are preceded by mini ones called transient ischaemic attacks or TIAs.
These may be silent or cause only a few of the symptoms that come with a full-blown stroke - such as face or arm weakness and speech problems - and last just a few minutes, making them easy to miss.
A TIA is a sign that part of your brain is not getting enough blood and you are at risk of having a stroke in the future.
Each year about 46,000 people in the UK have their first TIA.
There is no way of telling whether you are having a TIA or a stroke when the symptoms first start. If you think you or someone you know is having a TIA, it is a medical emergency so call 999.


MPs on the Energy Committee have written to the new business secretary to demand no change to the current rules on price comparison websites.

As part of its recent report on the energy market, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that such websites would no longer be required to show all the deals on offer.
But the MPs said that would undermine consumer trust, and harm competition.
The CMA rules will allow sites only to show deals on which they earn money.
This reverses a decision by the regulator Ofgem.  In January 2015, it ruled that comparison sites should show all the deals available - including those on which the site did not earn any commission.
The websites include Moneysupermarket, Uswitch and Comparethemarket.
"Price comparison websites must do what they say on the tin," said Angus MacNeil, the chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee.
"Consumers expect price comparison sites to shine a light on the whole market, not keep them in the dark and push them into commission earning deals."
Smaller energy suppliers have also complained about the CMA's new rules, as they fear the big six energy companies will become even more visible to consumers, while they will be excluded.
In a hearing before the MPs earlier this month, Roger Witcomb, chair of the CMA's energy market investigation panel, sought to justify the new rules.
He said the job of price comparison sites was to provide better deals for customers, not to provide a snapshot of the whole market.
He said Citizens Advice already had a website which did that.
The letter has gone to the new Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark.


Two British Vice News journalists arrested in Turkey on terror charges have been freed, the media group says.

Correspondent Jake Hanrahan and cameraman Philip Pendlebury were arrested while filming in the south-east region of Diyarbakir one week ago.
They were charged with "working on behalf of a terrorist organisation" and questioned over alleged links to Islamic State and Kurdish militants.
Their translator, Iraqi Mohammed Ismael Rasool, reportedly remains in custody.
Their lawyer, Ahmet Ay, told the BBC a Turkish court had accepted an appeal of release for Mr Hanrahan, from Northampton, and Mr Pendlebury, from Wigan.
However, the court rejected an appeal for Mr Rasool's release, saying material on his computer was still being investigated.
"We are planning to appeal to this decision as well, most probably next week. We think all the three journalists' actions were within the frame of journalism," he said.
The two British men were now being taken from the high security prison where they were held to the immigration bureau, he said.
He said there was no court decision asking for their deportation, and the trial will continue in their absence. As yet, no date is set for the first hearing.
Vice News released a statement saying it was grateful for the release of two of their journalists, but calling for a "swift end to this unjust detainment" of Mr Rasool.
Mr Rasool was an experienced journalist and translator who had worked extensively across the Middle East with news outlets including Associated Press and Al Jazeera, it said.
The three men had been in the area filming clashes between police and youths from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which have erupted in recent weeks, according to Vice News.
Turkey has limited journalists' access to the region.
The authorities came under criticism for detaining the group, including from Amnesty International, which described the charges as "bizarre".
On Wednesday, the Foreign Office expressed "concerned" at the arrests, saying it expected Turkey to uphold its obligation to uphold press freedom according to EU and UN human rights law.
Vice News is an international news organisation which publishes documentaries and written news, focusing on "under-reported stories from around the globe".


Imagine a world in which the price of housing stopped rising as predictably as a hydrogen-filled balloon.

And imagine a country in which houses would be just as affordable in 10 years' time as they were 10 years ago.
There would be no race to buy a home, no fear that prices would accelerate faster than you can save up for the deposit.
Houses would cease to be a means of profit, and instead become just a place to live.
But this is no John Lennon-inspired fantasy.
It is about to come to fruition in the East End of London, in an extraordinary experiment.
For the first time, future property prices will be tied to the rise in wages.
In a couple of weeks the first of 23 families will move in to an old mental health hospital in Tower Hamlets that has been converted into flats. They will pay a third of market value.
When they come to sell, the price they are allowed to charge will be limited by the increase in local wages, as measured by the Office for National Statistics.
Amongst the buyers are Rachael and Nathaniel Evans and their young son Griffin.
Despite their joint income of £33,000, and savings of nearly £70,000, they have been unable to afford anything in the area.
But now, thanks to the local Community Land Trust (CLT), they will soon be moving into a home of their own.
"It is amazing. It is life-changing for us," says Nathaniel, who has lived in Tower Hamlets all his life.
"I imagine walking into the flat and thinking, 'this is ours,' and we don't have to leave."
But the wage link is significant.
When Rachael and Nathaniel eventually decide to sell, their property's value will not have gone up in line with the market.
Typically, wages have risen by less than 2% a year over the last decade, dipping as low as 0.7% as recently as June 2014.
At the same time, despite a few dips, house prices have soared by up to 9%, easily outpacing wages.
If that trend continues, the relative value of their flat will decline, making it hard for them to move elsewhere.
As a result, linking house prices to wages requires a very different attitude, says Calum Green, co-director of the London CLT.
"These homes should be considered homes, not assets," he tells the BBC.
"It should be a place where you want to live for many, many years. It's not all about ladders and working your way up."
In any case Rachael believes the security of owning a home is more important than its value.
"It's not so much about how much money we're going to make out of this, it's that we're not going to get a letter through the post next week saying we've got two months to leave."
And there is one financial compensation: the mortgage the couple will pay on their flat will be lower than the £1,000 a month rent they were paying previously.
"That will give us the opportunity to save a little bit each month," says Nathaniel.
"And to prepare for the day - if ever it comes - when we move out, and house prices have risen around us."
CLTs exist to provide affordable homes, both for rent and for purchase. There are 175 CLTs in England and Wales, which so far have delivered 560 homes.
In some cases land for development is given to CLTs, free of charge, by a local authority for example. In other cases CLTs may work with developers, who donate the freehold to the CLT after they have made their profits.
More frequently, CLTs buy the land themselves.
In Scotland the focus has been more on the community ownership of land, rather than homes, after the law was changed to allow residents to buy land that comes up for sale.
Most CLTs are actually in rural areas rather than urban ones.
Typically, they have been set up where local house prices have risen far above what residents can afford.
One example is at Rock, in north Cornwall, where second home-owners have moved in to enjoy the beaches and the sailing, so inflating prices.
After a local farmer donated the first bit of land, residents got together to build their own homes on it.
So far 24 have been completed, with others in the pipeline.
While future prices are not linked to wages, their re-sale value is limited to 31.3% of what it would be on the open market, ensuring future affordability.
"That way," says Ted Rowe, the chairman of the St Minver CLT, "the village can keep the young people who crew the lifeboat, and the older ones who staff the coastguard."
The government is expected to announce a programme of support for similar coastal and rural CLTs in the Autumn Statement.
It will be funded out of the extra stamp duty chargeable on second homes.
Critics say that CLTs are not a solution to the UK's housing crisis, as they can only ever build a relatively small number of properties.
They also often rely on land being given away for free, or at a discount.
"Access to land is the real issue," says Luke Murphy, a senior research fellow in housing policy at the Institute for Public Policy and Research (IPPR).
"So scaling it up in the absence of a supply of land - that's where the idea may face some difficulties."
175
CLTs in England and Wales
560 permanent homes delivered
2500 homes in the pipeline
But perhaps more than that, it requires a redefinition of why we aspire to own a home in the first place.
Is it because we want somewhere to live, or is it really because we want to make money?
"The reason why people in Britain want to own their own home, I think, is because that's the only way you can get security," says Calum Green.
Because of that, Luke Murphy believes CLTs which link prices directly to wages could really catch on.
"Yes, you will forego the increase in your own assets, but it does bring the other benefits of home ownership: security, being able to put down roots in your own community, and control over your environment."
For a generation of parents who were able to afford a home themselves, but who know guiltily that their children will never be able to do so, the idea also provides some hope.
As Calum Green says, "We need to lock affordability in, so it's not just beneficial for one family, but it's beneficial for generations to come."


Scotland women can beat group favourites Iceland and seal a place at Euro 2017, says coach Anna Signeul.

A Jane Ross double and a Kim Little penalty saw off Slovenia at the Paisley 2021 Stadium on Friday and made it five group wins out of five for Scotland.
They face the top seeds in June, and Signeul believes Iceland's attacking style will suit the Scots.
"They will come at us, we'll need to be very sharp defensively, but there will be more space to attack," she said.
"We maybe need to play a little faster."
The win put Scotland six points clear at the top of the group, though Iceland have two games in hand. The eight group winners and six best runners-up qualify for the finals next summer in the Netherlands.
Slovenia made life difficult at times for Scotland and had plenty of chances of their own before and after Kristina Erman's surprise first-half equaliser.
However, Signeul bristled at suggestions her side looked sluggish.
"I don't think it has anything to do with the amount of games we have played," she said. "I'm very happy with the players' form and shape they are in right now.
"Even if you look at the Sweden game [the recent friendly defeat] and where they were then to where they are this week, you can see they have started to get very sharp.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game. There are a very physical side. They are good football players. They're well organised, they were hard to break down but I think we were patient.
"We created some chances and we could have scored more. We are not happy with conceding the free-kick [that led to Slovenia's goal] but I think getting the goal before half-time meant a lot."
With Scotland leading 2-1 at half-time, a pivotal moment came when Little won and scored a penalty five minutes into the second half.
It left the visitors incensed, but Signeul agreed with the referee's decision.
"He [Slovenia head coach Damir Rob] was very upset with the penalty and came to me afterwards as well, but I definitely think it was a penalty," Signeul explained. "She kicked her, stopped her from taking the ball - that's how I saw it."
Signeul also lauded the strength in depth of her squad, with a number of regular starters having to make do with a place on the bench against Slovenia.
"Joelle [Murray] did really well against Spain, so it wasn't easy to put Leanne Ross and Caroline [Weir] and Joelle on the bench, that was a difficult decision.
"But as I coach I am delighted we have that problem instead of having no competition. We had some really good performances individually as well as a team."


Conservationists are using a new technique to protect 500-year-old oak trees in a County Antrim wood.

It is known as haloing and entails cutting away other trees around them to give them space.
Despite their size and seniority in the forest, oaks are sensitive to crowding.
Other species growing up through their canopy cause them to retreat. In time, it may kill them.
Glenarm Wood outside the County Antrim village of the same name has probably the best oak wood in Northern Ireland.
It has between 400 and 500 specimen oaks considered "ancient or veteran".
Ancient oaks are those considered to be at least 500-years-old.
Ulster Wildlife leases the wood from the Glenarm Estate.
Reserves manager Andrew Crory says the younger trees are "basically growing up through the armpits" of the oaks.
"You can imagine if someone kept poking you again and again, you would start getting a bit annoyed," he said.
Eventually the trees start to retreat, with lower branches dying off, until the entire tree dies.
Mr Crory explained that it is not only the trees that are at risk, but the scores of species of plant, insect and animal life that live within each one.
"If an oak dies, where do all the invertebrates, the fungi, the beetles, the mosses and the lichens go?
"They need that tree at a certain stage of growth.
"So the whole ecology of those oak trees will be lost as well."


With one round of Scottish Premiership fixtures remaining, Inverness Caledonian Thistle or Hamilton Academical will face automatic relegation.

Richie Foran's men are one point behind Accies at the foot of the table and host Motherwell knowing nothing short of victory can save them from the drop.
Hamilton will guarantee second-bottom, and face a relegation play-off against Dundee United, by beating Dundee.
Ahead of the final round of league matches, BBC Scotland seeks the counsel of a former Inverness and Accies player, and a veteran manager of the Scottish game, to assess the prospects of the struggling two.
Is the pressure off Inverness?
"Inverness go into it with not much to lose. They've been written-off all season, looking as if they were going to be automatically relegated, and all of a sudden they've been given an olive branch.
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"And, if they can do their job and win the game, they've at least showed some fight and character, but I actually believe, if they do win, they'll make the play-offs.
"Then it's important they don't think it's job done. You've then got a really hard game against Dundee United or Falkirk, albeit I think the Premiership team will survive."
Is this the most important weekend in the club's history?
"The Scottish Cup final was obviously a huge game for them, being in the League Cup final as well, but the bread-and-butter league games, this is probably the biggest since 2009, when they got relegated the last time.
"That's the be-all and end-all. Finishing in the top six was great a couple of years ago, finishing third was fantastic, but this is the one the club need - I'm not saying they need to win to survive -  but it would be a footballing disaster if they got relegated, because you've seen how tough the Championship can be.
"The big issue is whether they've got their house in order for players' wages, because there would need to be pay cuts and you would hope there was something in contracts to say, by the way, if we are in the Championship, you will be getting x amount, not y or z that you're on just now."
You labelled this Inverness team the worst you've ever seen - after that appraisal, do you feel they are good enough, and tough enough, to stay up?
"I think they've always had the talent. You look at their team and had I seen more of the fight they showed [in the wins] against Hamilton and Dundee, I wouldn't have made that comment.
"Because I genuinely believe they have got some good players there - Greg Tansey, Ross Draper, Gary Warren, Iain Vigurs, Billy Mckay - who shouldn't be playing in a team that's bottom of the league.
"But they haven't performed well enough this season for whatever reason. That's why I made the comment. I felt at the time a lot of the players had downed tools and pretty much accepted their fate.
"But, lately, they've shown signs of a revival and you can see there's a little bit of confidence getting back into their game.
"But the league table doesn't lie - if you finish bottom then you've been the worst team."
Where have Accies suffered most this season?
"When you go on to that park, one thing you can't do is hide. I think the players have given it everything in terms of their effort, but I've been there, I've been in situations where players maybe don't show for the ball.
"You can't have that at any level. It only takes one or two to not be showing, even for a simple pass, and the whole thing can go to pot.
"I think there have been questions asked, certainly over the last six or seven games, that certain personnel haven't produced.
"What can happen is players feel a little bit sorry for themselves. And, when you're down the wrong end of the table, you can't do that.
"They give it everything in terms of their effort, just little bits of quality in terms of showing for the ball have been missing from their game.
"I think Accies are a good team when they've got that determination and doggedness, when they hunt in packs.
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"They've got that work ethic and they go and work their socks off, but for some reason, they've not been doing it.
"I don't know if there's something happening off the park, or whether they're just not gelling - that's [manager] Martin Canning's department."
How damaging could relegation be for the club?
"The players have been prepared to be at the wrong end of the table. I don't think Accies will ever get carried away.
"They know they're not going to be a top-six side, so they're always going to be in and around the sort of position they're in.
"But I don't think five, six games ago, they thought for a minute they'd be in this position. They're going to have to show that character that they have got.
"They've got to produce it, if not for themselves then certainly for the manger, because he's taken a bit of stick throughout the season.
"I think he's a good manager, but the players have got to stand up and be counted and show a little bit more for him."
How much pressure are the players under?
"I've been relegated with Falkirk and there was a lot going on at the club at the time. It was a horrible feeling, I knew there were jobs on the line.
"Accies players, I don't think, earn a lot of money in comparison to other Premiership sides. So, if they drop down a division, it could affect their lifestyles and families.
"You've got to be so focused, don't have any distractions and make sure, at the end of the 90 minutes on Saturday, you've given everything.
"If that is the case, sometimes you're not quite good enough and you've got to accept it, but I think Accies are good enough to stay in that division."
"I had the experience of that when I was at Dundee United [in 2001]. We had come from a bad place at the bottom of the league around new year and we got to within the second-last game and had to get some kind of result out of it.
"At half-time at Perth, we were 2-0 down to St Johnstone, and St Mirren were beating Aberdeen on the day, so we were down.
"I spent 15 minutes charging around the dressing room shouting out things, changing the personnel, changing things tactically and we had to turn things round or we were going to get relegated.
"It was one of my best 15 minutes. All my changes worked and I can remember saying, if we can get one, we'll get two and, if we get two, we'll get three.
"I kept repeating this and Paul Hegarty and Maurice Malpas kept looking at me and saying 'are you daft?'
"But we did, we got away and it was that situation where you were practically over the cliff and you had to do something to get back up again."


Former British number one Elena Baltacha has announced her retirement from tennis with immediate effect.

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The 30-year-old, who won 11 singles titles, reached the third round of Wimbledon in 2002 and the same stage of the Australian Open, in 2005 and 2010.
The Scot reached a career-high ranking of 49 in 2010, but struggled with injury and illness during her career.
"My body has taken such a bruising over the last 16 years and that's finally taken its toll," she said.
"I have had some amazing experiences through playing tennis - some incredible highs and some very low lows - and I wouldn't change any of them but now my mind and my body are telling me it's time to move on to a new phase of my life."
Baltacha was diagnosed at the age of 19 with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver condition which compromises the immune system.
But she went on to enjoy a successful career, representing Great Britain for 12 consecutive years in the Fed Cup and competing at the London 2012 Olympics.
She returned from a nine-month injury layoff to win the ITF Nottingham Challenge in June, but was knocked out in the first round of Wimbledon and failed to qualify for the US Open in August.
Baltacha now plans to dedicate herself to coaching and developing the academy she founded in 2012 with her coach Nino Severino.
"I still absolutely love tennis and I want to take that passion and put it into learning to be the best coach I can be so that I can take all my experiences as a player and use that to help develop the next generation of British tennis players," she added.
"We believe that no matter what background you are from, that all children, rich or poor, should have the opportunity to play tennis. Hopefully we'll produce a champion one day."
Britain's Fed Cup captain Judy Murray said Baltacha set a great example for emerging players to follow.
"Bally has been the most incredible ambassador for women's tennis in Britain for the past 12 years. Her work ethic and competitive spirit are second to none," said Murray.
"If we could bottle those qualities, we would have many more top players. She's the perfect role model for our junior girls and the Fed Cup won't be the same without her."


BMI Regional is to begin flying between City of Derry Airport and London Stansted with the assistance of a £3.8m grant from the Department of Transport.

The service will begin on Tuesday 2 May, replacing Ryanair's Stansted service.
The airline will operate two return flights each day, except for Saturdays which will have one flight each way.
This is the first-ever UK government backing for a public service obligation (PSO) air route in Northern Ireland.
The Department for Transport provides funding for such routes if the service is "vital for the economic and social development of the region".
It maintains regional airport links through a 'connectivity fund', which can be used to protect important air connections to London which may otherwise be lost.
Secretary of State James Brokenshire said: "The UK government has worked closely with Derry City and Strabane District Council to protect this important route to City of Derry Airport.
"£3.8m of UK government funding will allow 13 return flights to connect Londonderry to London every week.
"The new service will allow business passengers to get to central London and complete a full day's work before returning home."
Jochen Schnadt, chief commercial officer of BMI regional, said the company wanted to invest in the north west.
"It is important for businesses that the region is well connected to the UK capital and BMI Regional is proud to be bringing its quality, premium product to this route," he said.
"Whereas previously, business travellers between Derry and London have had to stay overnight in the city, with our new double daily flights they will now be able to commute there and back in a day, saving both money and time, and hopefully resulting in continued economic growth for the Derry region," he added.
Chief Executive of Derry City and Strabane District Council John Kelpie said they were "delighted" by the deal.
Ryanair axed its service to London last year.


Former Wales prop Adam Jones has urged tight-head Samson Lee to get the better of England's Joe Marler on Saturday.

England and Wales have accused each other of illegal scrummaging before the Six Nations showdown at Twickenham.
The hosts' head coach Eddie Jones believes Wales push too early at the scrum but Adam Jones says Wales' set-piece could help them dominate.
"Any prop worth his salt pushes the boundaries as much as they can at this level," Adam Jones told BBC Wales.
"The more they can get Samson to pre-engage, I think the better for them.
"For me he's one of the best tight heads in the world.
"If Samson can get to grips with Joe [Marler] then Wales will be fine."
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Eddie Jones says his side have a stronger scrum than Wales, adding if the laws are enforced England "will get an advantage".
Wales felt harshly done-by at the scrum in their 28-25 win over England in the pool stage of last year's World Cup.
Forwards coach Robin McBryde highlighted England prop Joe Marler as a frequent infringer at the scrum.
Marler's Harlequins front row colleague Adam Jones believes accusations the 25-year-old is guilty of illegal tactics at the scrum have been harsh.
"For me he's a square scrummager and he gets quite a bad reputation, especially after the World Cup," Jones added.
"When the scrummaging went to the new laws without the hits, he was one of the props you thought it would favour more because he get a long bind and he's outside the tight-head.
"In the World Cup he scrummaged well against Wales and he got the penalties, and against Australia it was the reverse."


Rochdale have signed defender Niall Canavan from League One rivals Scunthorpe on an emergency loan deal.

The 24-year-old has made 12 appearances for the Iron this season but has not featured since 2 January.
The former Republic of Ireland Under-21 international progressed through the youth system at Glanford Park, where he has made 173 appearances.
Canavan, who has had just one previous loan spell away from Scunthorpe, could feature against Crewe on Tuesday.
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Tributes have been paid to two friends killed in an apparent hit-and-run crash.

They were struck by a BMW as they walked on Broadway in Yaxley, near Peterborough, at about 11:10 GMT on Tuesday.
The men have been named locally as Thomas Fletcher, aged 19 and 22-year-old Thomas Northam.
Their friend, Frazer Love, said: "They were both so kind, gentle and funny. When I found out, my heart just broke."
Thomas Fletcher had been studying engineering at Peterborough Regional College. A spokeswoman said: "The department is saddened to hear of the loss of Thomas at such a young age.
"Thomas showed a lot of potential as an engineer and was well liked by his fellow students and lecturers alike.
"Thomas was always friendly, and was helpful to his fellow students in his class and able to share his skills and experience to help them with their work."
There will be a service of remembrance at St Peter's Church in Yaxley on Sunday.
Vicar, John Randall, said: "People are shocked and saddened. There's a desperate sense of loss.
"It's a close-knit community. We'll be praying for the families and looking to do whatever we can to support them."
The driver of the car fled on foot after the collision on Tuesday morning and a police helicopter and dog unit were brought in to help in the search.
A 38-year-old man was arrested in Chelmsford later that night on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and actual bodily harm.
A briefcase containing "a quantity of cash" was also found in the Yaxley area, Cambridgeshire Police said.
The force confirmed that the briefcase had been forensically examined and that detectives were still trying to establish where it came from.


Ireland's men fought back from 2-0 down to earn a 3-3 draw against South Africa in the latest in their series of internationals in Cape Town.

Two Kyle Good goals levelled the contest and while South Africa regained the lead, Chris Cargo's strike earned the Irish a draw.
Keeper Jamie Carr had a fine game for the Irish who face Canada on Wednesday.
Ireland's women beat Spain 3-2 on Monday with Chloe Watkins, Naomi Carroll and Zoe Wilson on target.
The Irish women were beaten 3-0 and 2-1 by Spain in their opening two games in the four-match series and the final meeting between the countries takes place on Tuesday morning in Valencia.
Ireland's men will face the Canadians on Wednesday and Thursday before next weekend's two contests against Belgium.
The matches are part of Ireland's preparations for their challenge at the Olympic Games in Rio in August.
Ireland opened their series of games in South Africa by earning a 2-0 win over Canada before drawing 1-1 against the same opposition on Saturday.


League Two Plymouth Argyle have signed Cardiff City winger Matthew Kennedy on loan for the rest of the season.

The 22-year-old, who has represented Scotland at various youth levels, has not started for the Championship side this term.
He started his career with Kilmarnock, joining Cardiff from Everton following three separate loan spells.
Kennedy has played 19 times for the Bluebirds in all, starting nine games since joining them in February 2015.
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The government is to create a marine reserve almost as big as the UK in the Atlantic waters of Ascension Island.

Just over half of the protected area will be closed to fishing.
The fishery in the other half will be policed under a grant of Â£300,000 from the Louis Bacon Foundation, a charitable body.
It is the latest marine reserve to be declared around remote islands, which will increase marine conservation zones to about 2% of the ocean.
That remains a far cry from the 30% recommended by scientists to preserve species and expand fish stocks, but is much more than just a few years ago.
Governments have designated marine parks at Palau in the North Pacific, Easter Island and Pitcairn in the South Pacific, and New Zealand's Kermadec islands, in what has become a landmark year for ocean conservation.
The latest reserve at Ascension Island is said to hold some of the largest marlin in the world, one of the largest populations of green turtles, big colonies of tropical seabirds and the island's own unique frigate bird.
The reserve totals 234,291 sq km, slightly less than the size of the United Kingdom. It could be ready for formal designation as soon as 2017, once further data has been collected and analysed.
Dr Judith Brown, director of fisheries and marine conservation for Ascension Island government, said: "The economic benefit from the fishery has provided much-needed income for the island.
"This donation will help fund the enforcement to protect the closed area from illegal fishing."
The Great British Oceans Coalition, which includes the Blue Marine Foundation and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, has been campaigning since 2014 for the designation of all or part of Ascension's waters.
Charles Clover, Blue Marine Foundation chairman, said: "Ascension has been at the frontiers of science since Charles Darwin went there in the 19th Century, so it is entirely appropriate that it is now at the centre of a great scientific effort to design the Atlantic's largest marine reserve."
An accident of colonial history has left the UK and France with huge potential to safeguard marine life around remote oceanic islands.
The Conservative party promised in its 2015 manifesto to create a "blue belt" of protected ocean round the UK's Overseas Territories.
The commitment was described by Tory MP Zac Goldsmith as "the biggest conservation commitment by any government ever, pledging to protect an area of ocean three-and-a-half times the size of Britain".
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Mae ymosodwr Cymru, Gareth Bale wedi dweud na fydd yn 100% yn holliach ar gyfer ffeinal Cynghrair y Pencampwyr yng Nghaerdydd.

Mae amheuaeth wedi bod am ffitrwydd Bale ar gyfer y gêm rhwng Juventus a Real Madrid yn Stadiwm Cenedlaethol Cymru nos Sadwrn.
Mae Bale wedi colli tri mis o'r tymor ar ôl iddo anafu ei ffêr nol ym mis Tachwedd a chael anaf arall i'w goes ym mis Ebrill.
Dywedodd Bale ei fod yn "difaru rhuthro'n ôl yn dilyn llawdriniaeth ar ei ffêr".
"Dydw i ddim 100% yn holliach. Tydw i heb chwarae ers chwech i saith wythnos," meddai.
"Dwi wedi cael llawdriniaeth ar y ffêr sydd heb wella'n iawn.
"Dwi wedi bod yn dioddef lot o boen ond wedi cymryd tabledi er mwyn brwydro drwy gemau."
Mae Bale wedi derbyn bod ei gyfle i ymddangos i Real Madrid ar ddechrau "ffeinal ei freuddwydion" yng Nghaerdydd yn annhebygol, ond bydd yn hapus i wneud os mai dyna ddymuniad ei reolwr.
Ychwanegodd: "Mae unrhyw lawdriniaeth yn anodd, ond yng nghanol tymor mae ychydig anoddach.
"Dyliwn i wedi oedi cyn dod 'nôl a gadael iddo wella, mi wnâi ddysgu o hyn."
"Beth bynnag fydd penderfyniad y rheolwr, fyddai'n hapus i gydymffurfio," meddai.
Bydd ffeinal Cynghrair y Pencampwyr yn digwydd nos Sadwrn, 3 Mehefin, yn Stadiwm Cenedlaethol Cymru gyda'r gic gyntaf am 19:45.


Music is helping to keep the Welsh language alive in Patagonia, harpist and composer Catrin Finch has said.

She has been in the Welsh-speaking part of Argentina with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) to mark 150 years since Welsh settlers arrived.
Ysgol yr Hendre, the bilingual Welsh-Spanish school in Trelew, has hosted performances during a week of events.
Ms Finch said it was "incredible" to visit a Patagonian school where all the pupils speak Welsh.
"I think it's the music that is keeping the language alive," she said after the school visit.
"Obviously I've lived in Wales my entire life, and you hear about Patagonia but you never quite get it, you never quite believe that people really do speak Welsh here."
She said it was "incredible" to visit a school where "they all speak Welsh, and they know the songs we have been singing to them".
"They almost know them better than we do," she added.
"It's an incredible experience. When you look out of the window at the countryside, what you see is so different to what we see in Wales, and yet there is a little patch here that is speaking Welsh. It is amazing."
As well as the workshops and performances for schools, members of the orchestra are also taking part in activities with community choirs and amateur orchestras.
The week's performances include a Noson Lawen, an evening of traditional Welsh music, in the town of Gaiman and a gala concert in a converted wool warehouse in Trelew.
After its week in Patagonia, BBC NOW will continue its first tour of South America with performances in Buenos Aires, Chile and Uruguay.