Washington's National Press Club gave Senator George Mitchell a hero's welcome back from the Belfast front as he warned that a positive vote in the referendum was not certain.
But he also found himself facing questions about Viagra, the new male potency drug, Guinness pints and his next job.
The club, now celebrating its 90th anniversary, beat Queen Elizabeth to the conferring of a knighthood on the former Senate majority leader. He got the mug of honour, the club's equivalent of a knighthood, he was informed.
Was there any truth in the rumour that he was going to be the next US ambassador to the UN? "No", was the answer. What about a federal judgeship (maybe Supreme Court). "Been there, done that."
The president of the club, Doug Harbrecht, pressed on. Was the Guinness in Ireland noticeably better than in the US? "Candour compels me to admit - and this will do great damage to my standing in Ireland - that I don't drink. I never had a glass of Guinness here or there, so you will have to ask someone else."
Now came the really hard one. "Since you are married to a woman 25 years younger than yourself, many here are wondering if, like your law partner Bob Dole, you have ever used Viagra?"
There was a gasp from the crowded ballroom. "I agree with your reaction," said the unfazed senator. "But the answer is no. And I have a six-month-old son to prove that I don't need it."
The room exploded in relieved laughter. But some felt the president had pushed his luck, even if Bob Dole had admitted on Larry King Live that he had used Viagra, but it had been as a trial experiment for his prostate cancer, and it had worked.
These jokes came at the end of an hour of Senator Mitchell setting out the broad lines of the Belfast Agreement and taking questions on its chances of success.
He is hoping and praying that the agreement will be approved but he warned that no result is certain until the vote. He praised the work of the British and Irish political leaders and of President Clinton in bringing about the final agreement, but for him "the real heroes are the political leaders in Northern Ireland". Asked if its opponents could still derail the peace process, Mr Mitchell defended their right to campaign for a No vote as a "legitimate political aspiration of their own".