Ian Paisley jnr leaned forward and looked at the coat Michael Collins was wearing when he was killed in 1922. "There's still mud on it. He was wearing it when he was shot?" he asked in an interested fashion.
Now there's a paragraph you never thought you'd read. The Big Fella's coat and the Big Fella's son came face-to-face at Collins Barracks in Dublin yesterday as Mr Paisley visited the Soldiers and Chiefs exhibition.
The Democratic Unionist Party MLA was accompanied by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who had earlier introduced him at the Reconciliation Networking Forum in nearby Kilmainham.
The museum exhibition details the role of the Irish at war, at home and abroad, since 1550.
Afterwards, BBC reporter Diarmuid Fleming asked Mr Paisley how he felt about visiting a barracks "named after perhaps the most prolific IRA man of all times, Michael Collins".
Mr Paisley said it was a "very historic place" and "magnificent facility" which, because of our shared past, told the story of both Irish and British history.
But what was his opinion of Michael Collins? "It's not for me to pass judgment on people of the past. But he wouldn't be one of my heroes. I'm sure you'll appreciate that," Mr Paisley said.
He made appreciative noises as he walked around the exhibition, followed by a crowd of photographers jostling to get the best position.
However, he didn't linger at a large poster about the Easter 1916 Rising and his guides veered away from a red and white "Stop, army checkpoint" sign, bringing him to a less controversial display of tanks instead.
Mr Paisley was in a relaxed mood at the Reconciliation Networking Forum earlier, after hearing Dermot Ahern talk about the Government's willingness to invest money in Northern Ireland. Mr Ahern said the State had awarded more than €21 million to reconciliation projects since 1999.
"The National Development Plan, for the first time ever, is absolutely peppered with references to cross-Border initiatives," he said.
"It makes no sense that this small island should be working separately, if there are issues that we can work on together, particularly in the economic sphere."
Mr Paisley told the gathering that it was always good to come to Dublin if money was promised. "That's twice we've done that. We may be back," he said.
He said there was nothing wrong with reflecting on the past as long as people had a forward-looking vision. "We must use the lessons of the past to build and secure a sustainable and lasting peace," he said.
But his jovial mood did not extend to Sinn Féin and the IRA when asked afterwards if he was happy that the war was over. "The struggles which started occurred really under a premier called [ Terence] O'Neill. The struggles that have ended, will end whenever the other O'Neill, P O'Neill, disappears as well."
He said the DUP had "dragged" Sinn Féin to a position of accepting the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland state.
"One of the things that we are seeing on a day-by-day basis is that people who once hated the police, who fought the police, who murdered the police, now recognise that they must embrace the police."
