British-Irish Council:More important milestones. This was Dermot Ahern's description of the significance of yesterday's British-Irish Council at Stormont, and today's North-South Ministerial Council in Armagh.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs was right, although he might just as easily have defined the latest landmark event by reference to its sheer ordinariness.
The "process" in and about Northern Ireland goes on. Yet it seems remarkably different already. "You really have got to pinch yourself," as one senior Irish official remarked. For here was a summit at Parliament Buildings, under the shadow of Lord Carson's statue, where the uncertain weather, occasional heavy downpours and threatened storms, no longer served as a metaphor for the likely political outcome.
"I believe we have entered into a new historic place for Northern Ireland," declared British prime minister Gordon Brown, arriving with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern after their prior one-to-one at the City Airport yesterday morning.
The impression was a while back that the new prime minister was in no hurry to visit Belfast, and that his diary problems might see this first British-Irish Council meeting since the restoration of Northern Ireland's devolved government postponed until the autumn. The DUP in turn made clear that it would be content to see the resumption of the North-South cross-Border dimension similarly delayed. And DUP ministers were happy yesterday - though only quietly and discreetly - that they had made an important point.
They have a point, and it raises interesting questions about the capacity of the institutions established by the 1998 Belfast Agreement to develop in ways the original architects might not have imagined or intended.
The creation of the British-Irish Council was widely regarded as something of a sop to David Trimble, an easy concession to cover unionist embarrassment while "everybody" knew that the real dynamic would lie in the North-South Ministerial Council.
"For too long the east-west axis was the poor relation of North-South business," observed Northern Ireland's First Minister the Rev Ian Paisley ahead of yesterday's first-ever British-Irish Council in Belfast, promising: "We are committed to redressing the balance."
Perhaps some (though I couldn't name them offhand) were far-sighted enough back in 1998 to foresee Dr Paisley supplanting Mr Trimble and heading his own powersharing administration with Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness as co-equal First Minister.
Mr Ahern responded shrewdly to Tony Blair's UK-wide devolution project by opening Irish consular offices in Cardiff and Edinburgh. But nobody can claim to have foretold the day when Scotland's nationalist first minister Alex Salmond would lend powerful stimulus to Dr Paisley's bid to make the British-Irish Council a significant force for co-operation between what are loosely described as "the nations and regions of the United Kingdom".
In fairness to Mr Brown, maybe he always intended an early visit. He was entitled to "diary problems" as he moved in to Number 10, even before that baptism of fire and the renewed terror threat that seemed to loom large in his private discussions with the Taoiseach.
Moreover, whatever about the DUP, it is likely Dublin would have applied diplomatic pressure of its own had that proved necessary.
In his historic address to both Houses of Parliament at Westminster in May, Mr Ahern warned that securing the settlement in Northern Ireland would require ongoing attention and commitment at the highest political level.
In pressing for an early meeting of the British-Irish Council - about which the Taoiseach is patently and genuinely enthusiastic - Dublin, too, would have seen this as an early test for Mr Brown. In any event, the new prime minister passed it, assuring all sides: "I'm here to show I mean business."
In doing its business, it seems certain the British-Irish Council will henceforth be assisted by a dedicated secretariat. The first item on the official communique recorded a strategic review to be carried out of the council's work programmes, working methods and support arrangements, including arrangements for a standing secretariat.
The Irish Times understands Mr Salmond expressed his enthusiasm to have the secretariat in Scotland. Plaid Cymru's new deputy first minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones, was equally confident the principality would happily play host. First indications, also, are that the DUP might be less concerned with location than with its existence.
Many unionists are discomfited by Dr Paisley's friendly relationship with Mr Salmond. And it is clearly the case that their ultimate political purposes are inimical in terms of union or the break-up of the UK.
Yet while the SNP leader offers Mr Brown a non-confrontational approach in the interest of delivering prosperity for the Scottish people, Mr Salmond also provides the DUP with an opportunity to shape an "islands-wide" approach to co-operation on a wide range of issues.
Some observers tend to see this as a "Celtic" ganging-up against Westminster. Its real potential, however, might be in enabling unionists to counter an exclusively North-South focus which republicans hoped would presage further constitutional change.