Dr Paisley wore an overcoat for his historic visit to Dublin. Maybe he was remembering Edward Carson: "We will never forsake the blue skies of Ulster for the grey mists of an Irish republic." Or maybe he'd heard a more recent meteorological warning, of gale-force winds and rain spreading from the south.
Either way, he needn't have worried. The weather was pleasantly autumnal as he arrived at Government Buildings, and his own outlook could only be described as sunny.
There was no sign of stormy conditions even when a reporter asked him if he was happy to be here. Growing blustery, but still mild, he quipped: "Where Ulster's issues are being discussed, you couldn't do without Ian Paisley."
And then, flanked by Peter Robinson, he was inside the building.
When a former taoiseach once suggested talks, the DUP leader summarised the invitation : "Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly!" But striding boldly into Bertie Ahern's parlour yesterday, it seemed his fear of flies had deserted him in the intervening years.
Nothing unnerved him yesterday. Not the giant stained-glass window entitled "My Four Green Fields", the first thing he saw on entry. Nor the fact that the Irish delegation awaiting him included a Michael Collins (second secretary in the Department of the Taoiseach). Even the familiar face of Brian Cowen, whose features Dr Paisley had so loved, was gone, replaced by the thin-lipped Dermot Ahern.
And yet, scheduled for an hour-and-a-half at most, the talks lasted for two. Outside, the skies darkened with a hint of rain.
A chill descended on the waiting media, alone among whom - we now noticed - RTÉ's Tommie Gorman was wearing an overcoat. Had he checked the weather forecast? Was he in receipt of a warning that Hurricane Ian would emerge from the building, laying a trail of devastation in its wake?
We waited, cold and in trepidation. But when the DUP leader finally emerged, he was as benign as the one that went in. If anything, Dr Paisley is a bit short of wind these days. In a voice faint enough to be lost occasionally in the short distance that separated him from the microphones, he spoke of this being "a time of growing confidence in the unionist community".
He and his fellow unionists wanted "a relationship with our neighbour that is practically based rather than politically motivated," he said. No one had anything to fear from such an arrangement.
Yes, it was a "useful" meeting, he added. No, he and Bertie Ahern "didn't fall out": they had merely "agreed to differ".
By his own standards, it sounded like a dizzy courtship. Indeed, it was only when he was asked if he and Mr Ahern had a good relationship that Dr Paisley entered a note of caution. "You'd better ask him," he said.
