The picturesque seaside town of Bangor, Co Down, provided the backdrop for the first official meeting between the Republic's Minister for Education, Mr Martin, and his Northern Ireland counterpart, Mr Martin McGuinness.
Yesterday's meeting was low key, with their officials describing it as a "getting to know you" session.
Mr McGuinness is anxious that education becomes an area of closer North-South co-operation, while Mr Martin is hoping to broaden the amount of research and development undertaken on a cross-Border basis.
Mr Martin is expected to discuss this issue further next week when he meets the Northern Ireland Minister of Further Education, Mr Sean Farren, of the SDLP.
Yesterday's meeting was used to identify issues which will form the basis for the first formal meeting between the Ministers early in the new year.
Among the issues expected to be discussed at this meeting are teacher qualifications, special education needs and school and teacher exchanges.
The two administrations already combine in a wide range of areas. For example, students with specified GCSE grades are allowed to attend colleges of education for primary teachers in the Republic. University College Dublin's veterinary college reserves a quota of its first-year places for students from Northern Ireland.
A large number of cross-Border education initiatives are supported by funding from the EU.
The issue of which teacher qualifications are recognised in Northern Ireland and the Republic is likely to be central in the forthcoming talks. Equally, greater harmonisation of educational awards is likely to emerge from the future talks.
Monika Unsworth adds: The Minister of Social Development, Mr Nigel Dodds, has agreed to meet young people involved in the recent series of school protests.
This morning Mr Dodds and his DUP party colleague, Mr Sammy Wilson, will be meeting a group of pupils to discuss how they could "constructively" voice their opposition to the appointment of Mr McGuinness as Education Minister, without any further disruption to lessons.
Mr Dodds insisted the DUP had not organised any of the protests and did not approve of classes being disrupted by them. More than three dozen young people, mostly pupils suspended from the High School in Magherafelt, Co Derry, for protesting the previous day against the appointment of Mr McGuinness, staged another protest yesterday outside the school.
Following a counter-protest by a rival faction on Wednesday when a Tricolour was held aloft, the protesters yesterday displayed Union Jacks and Northern Ireland flags. A rival faction appeared again on the scene but after a time both crowds dispersed when buses arrived to take them home.