Dr Mo Mowlam entered the prefabricated press hut outside Castle Buildings, Stormont at 10 a.m. yesterday with her wig slightly tousled by the wind. Everything else, though, was firmly in place.
She ducked no questions, calling it straight on what the British and Irish governments believe is the only way forward for the peace process.
She had one clear message - a minor variation of a famous Margaret Thatcher soundbite about something else entirely: Tony Blair was not for turning.
Her performance was something of a tour de force. She acknowledged that it was a momentous - and, yes, even a historic - day in the 76-year history of Northern Ireland.
But she was not being portentous. There was too much to do yet, too many pitfalls ahead.
Indeed, she was at one with the sentiments of Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness who, in cautiously agreeing that the day was historic, warned that the task confronting all politicians was "awesome."
The British government now formally accepts that Sinn Fein is wedded to the ballot box, despite there being still a fair few Armalites, not to mention Kalashnikovs and supplies of Semtex, in dumps north and south of the Border. That is understandably hard for unionists and some others to stomach, but there was no alternative, she argued forcefully.
The most telling part of the conference came when she was told of remarks by the Ulster Unionist Party MP for West Tyrone, Mr William Thompson, ein to talks and accepting the integrity of the IRA ceasefire that yesterday was a sad day for Northern Ireland. "The unthinkable has happened. Any unionist who would take a seat at the squalid negotiating table is betraying the memory of those who have died in the Troubles," he lamented.
Dr Mowlam said her thoughts were with the victims and relatives of paramilitary violence. She understood and sympathised with unionist concerns, but added: "If the unthinkable is about saving lives then, yes, we are indulging in his definition of the unthinkable, and I think most people in Northern Ireland would want us to do that."
In a similar comment the previous day, she told the Belfast Tele- graph: "Morally, I would prefer to sit down with someone who has a past rather than see other RUC men killed. That is the choice I would make. I hope others make it, too."
In the same interview she stated: "Tony doesn't back down on things he wants to move ahead on."
So yesterday was a difficult day for David Trimble. All that happened was clearly signposted in advance but nonetheless the day, and the coming days, must be seen through with all their attendant sniping and cries of betrayal from the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party and Mr Robert McCartney's UK Unionist Party.
It was a good day for nationalism, and particularly republicanism. Not only did Dr Mowlam invite Sinn Fein into talks but, with an eye to republican dissidents, she was careful not to repeat Mr Blair's statement in May that even young people in Northern Ireland would not live to see a united Ireland.
"I think all options are on the table," she said. People's "hopes and desires" had to be acknowledged.
And on the issue of consent - which the UUP is stressing ahead of disarmament - there was also some shifting of the sands.
Dr Mowlam stressed that it is for a majority of the people of Northern Ireland to accept or reject whatever settlement the talks possibly devise.
But she added that under the ground rules of the talks that settlement should be based on "sufficient consensus" so that nationalist concerns would be considered. This can be translated as saying there should be some form of Irish dimension to any solution, which as well as annoying unionists infuriated the loyalist parties.
But Dr Mowlam was adamant: "In the end everybody is going to have to change a bit. Not just Sinn Fein, not just the UUP, but the British and Irish governments.
"And if we are going to move anywhere we have all got to change and accommodate and take the talks process seriously."
To cap all that the Northern Secretary added that pretty soon Mr Blair would meet the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams.
Mr Trimble, now perceived as the leader of modern unionism, is the key player in determining what way unionism will jump. The coming days will be agonising for him. He knows what happened to Brian Faulkner when he engaged with the power-sharing Sunning dale project of the early 1970s, and how loyalism, together with many strands of unionism, destroyed that initiative.
He will remember too that in the face of that threat all the then Labour government led by Harold Wilson could do was brand Northerners "spongers" and retreat from real politics here.
Mr Trimble, therefore, must ponder some difficult options. He has a clear choice - he can reject talks, which will mean that the two governments eventually will cobble together some form of agreement along the lines of the Framework Document, with its promise of an Irish dimension.
Thereafter unionism - possibly, and only possibly - with loyalism, can try to destroy on the streets any agreement, as it destroyed Sunningdale.
Does Mr Trimble want to be part of that? Does he want to confront a Labour leader who certainly conveys the impression of being much more resolute than Harold Wilson?
Signs are, despite his saying that he finds the thought of facing Mr Adams "repulsive", that he would still prefer to engage in some form of talks at some stage, although not necessarily on September 15th. But, as he said yesterday, no assumptions should be made about the UUP's position.
Dr Mowlam was impressive yesterday. This process may or may not work, but at least the British government has emphatically stated that it knows what it is about, where it stands, and where it is going.
Unionism now, and Mr Trimble in particular, must decide in the face of that clarity of position whether it will remain, even in a semi-detached way, in the process, or walk away.
Dr Mowlam urged unionism to engage. "We can always dwell on history, we can always look at the past and see what has happened. We have got to understand that past, we have got to learn lessons from it, but my goodness, we don't have to live in it.
"And what today is about is trying to move that process forward."