Overview:"The Troubles," said Tony Blair. "Not so much a dispute as a way of life." Which was a good description of what Northern Ireland, these islands indeed, had endured through 40 years of awful conflict, much of it bloody.
Even after yesterday the legacy of bitterness and sectarianism and criminality will remain with us - but to ever diminishing degrees, is the general hope. Regardless, yesterday marked the symbolic ending of that dispute.
It was unquestionably a huge moment in British-Irish history, in the history of unionism and nationalism, in the relationship between the North and South, a fitting climax to the long, gruelling, often heartbreaking years of negotiations to get to this point.
So why was there an underlying sense of anti-climax about the occasion? At least that was the feeling some of us had. The principals - Ian Paisley, Martin McGuinness, Bertie Ahern, Blair - acted properly, they spoke well, they provided positive images, there were apposite quotes. Yet, somehow, the day didn't quite match the occasion.
Perhaps that's as it should be. All the hard work was done beforehand. There was no suspense about the day, as there was on so many other days when hopes were shattered or results fell depressingly far short of expectations. "It was history without drama," to quote one commentator.
Northern Ireland's new start had to work from the outset, which is why Paisley and Peter Robinson on one side, and Gerry Adams and McGuinness on the other, and all their most senior strategists, through the benefit of bitter experience, nailed down the script in advance. There would be no deviation from each side's carefully rehearsed roles. No surprises. We've had enough surprises.
Will it work? There is no reason why it shouldn't. The omens are good. David Trimble was always in thrall to his own Ulster Unionist dissidents, many of them now in the DUP, and, of course, to Paisley himself. But Paisley is in thrall to no one except his God and, perhaps, his wife Eileen. Who can challenge Sinn Féin? Not republican dissidents, not the SDLP who, in any case, want this project to succeed.
This Executive has the imprimatur and goodwill of the main parties at Stormont, of the British and Irish governments, of George Bush and the White House, and even of the IRA leadership. It was significant that sitting in the VIP gallery just seven seats from Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern were the most senior of republicans, Brian Keenan, Brian Gillen and Bobby Storey.
There was no handshake between Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness yesterday but we knew that would be the case.
It was what Paisley and McGuinness said and did that was important, signalling an ability to work together in a business-like manner. Pushing for more would have been counter-productive. Easy on the hype, heavy on the pragmatism, was the sensible approach.
In the Assembly chamber yesterday morning, Paisley and McGuinness and their Ministers made solemn commitments. They affirmed pledges of office to promote the interests of the entire community; to participate fully in the Executive, and in the North-South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council; to observe the "joint nature" of the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister; and to uphold the rule of law and support the police and courts.
If they meet these challenges, as they pledged to do, then Northern Ireland should have a stable future. When Blair, Ahern and Northern Secretary Peter Hain squeezed into the couch in Paisley's office after the Assembly proceedings, flanked by the now properly installed First Minister and Deputy First Minister in their comfortable armchairs, the mood was unforced, genial and relaxed.
Others, though, asked the question: what was it all about? Did the powersharing Sunningdale agreement of 1973, wrecked by the likes of Paisley and the IRA, not offer as much as was achieved yesterday? Could the intervening loss of life not have been avoided? Over recent weeks the First Minister and Deputy First Minister have addressed that question without providing a coherent explanation as to what it was all about. More than 3,700 people died in the Troubles and many, many thousands more were physically or emotionally damaged by that violence. That suffering would "not be erased from our memories", Paisley promised. They would "look to the future to find the means to help [ the victims] heal", said the Deputy First Minister.
Northern Ireland has travelled a long, tortuous, terrible journey over almost 40 years to arrive at yesterday's powersharing agreement between the most trenchant of political rivals. It was indeed a big day, but in deference to the dead and scarred and in anticipation of the hard work ahead, it was an understated occasion that indicated a real possibility, as the Taoiseach said, of a "new era of mutual respect and peace".
