Analysis:The North has a real chance of leaving the nightmare behind, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor
Peter Hain caught it well. "If you had asked me yesterday or Saturday or Friday, let alone weeks ago, would this have been possible I would have said, 'it would be in my dreams and in all of the people of Northern Ireland's dreams'," he told The Irish Times.
The big days in Northern Ireland are when politicians think, act and speak generously. Yesterday was such an occasion.
In very modern Irish history it can take years, decades even, for dreams to come true.
Mostly, based on bitter experience, people give up entirely on hoping beyond themselves, but there is now a real chance that Northern Ireland is leaving a nightmare behind.
Ian Paisley, after his meeting with Gerry Adams, exited the members' dining room on the first floor of Parliament Buildings, where the historic encounter took place, and cheerfully waved down to reporters standing in the great hall of Stormont. But he wouldn't come down for an interview.
Adams held discussions with his own Assembly team about addressing the press pack in the hall but in the end decided against.
They knew what they were about: they would let the picture tell the story.
And such a picture.
Northern Secretary Hain, striving for his "hand of history" soundbite, did well with his comments yesterday. "Today the clouds have lifted and the people can see the future," he said.
"Those pictures of Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams will resonate around the world, a graphic manifestation of the power of politics over bigotry, bitterness and horror," he added.
"If after the last 40 years and more they can talk, anything and everything is possible for Northern Ireland."
In other circumstances this could have sounded trite or clichéd, but not yesterday. The Northern Secretary was correct: the picture will resonate, whatever about around the world, certainly with the people of Northern Ireland.
People here are heartily sick of perpetual political process but they understand deep in their psyche the meaning of Paisley and Adams sitting adjacent to each other, in the same frame, at the same table.
Hain is taking some stick for not holding to his "devolution or dissolution" threat, but the fact that Adams and Paisley worked it out between them is a much better deal entirely.
While some in the DUP will continue to have misgivings about powersharing, the party remains united under a strong if aged leader.
Of course, we have still to get to May 8th when the executive is formed and Paisley and Martin McGuinness take charge as first minister and deputy first minister.
And, of course, as Adams said yesterday, nothing can be taken for granted in the days and weeks ahead.
Of course things could go wrong, but based on the choreography, generosity, style and substance of yesterday's groundbreaking events, they shouldn't. It will be a "battle a day" when the executive is formed, as Adams has so often said, a line that Peter Robinson now uses.
The worry, too, is that we could have a sectarian parliament for a sectarian people, but the hope must be that DUP and Sinn Féin politicians are capable of rising above such tribalism.
Yesterday they said they were capable. Paisley said people must never forget about the horrors of the past but he wanted to make clear that he was "committed to delivering not only for those who voted for the DUP but for all the people of Northern Ireland".
In similar vein, Adams said: "We are very conscious of the many people who have suffered. We owe it to them to build the best future possible. It is a time for generosity, a time to be mindful of the common good and of the future of all of our people."
If this works, Tony Blair will have his legacy ahead of quitting Downing Street, and Bertie Ahern - and Sinn Féin - could have a pre-general election bounce as well.
Objectively, Blair and Ahern have applied great energy, time and creativity to achieving this deal. Who would begrudge them a legacy and a bounce.
This deal was done in St Andrews in Scotland in October, on the last days of the all-party talks hosted by Blair and Ahern. In fact it was probably done in Paisley's head long before that, just as the August 31st, 1994, IRA ceasefire was done in Adams's head long before that as well.
Remember that wooden bowl carved from a tree from the Battle of the Boyne site that Ahern presented to Paisley at St Andrews and the DUP leader's response: how he hoped that that Friday 13th would stand out as the day when a real future was created for his and everyone's children and grandchildren in Northern Ireland and Ireland generally.
That is now possible.