If this was history in the making, there was no exuberance or fanfare in the aisles of the Dail.

Jim McDaid sagaciously suggested that the mood was "not one of exultation, rather it was a mood of great relief and thoughtful assent". But they could at least have raised a round of applause when the Taoiseach and his Ministers marched into the Chamber for the first time since the Northern Ireland Agreement was sealed in Stormont.

When Albert Reynolds returned, triumphant, after signing the Downing Street Declaration in 1994, the whole House was on its feet in warm commendation. Yesterday there was no buala bos when Bertie Ahern walked in. The leader of the Opposition, John Bruton, was not there to prompt a round of rave applause.

It was not as though they did not - practically to a TD - endorse the deal, billed as a classic example in conflict resolution and the start of a new dawn in Ireland.

However, it was the proud Coalition deputies, massed around their leader on the Government side of the House, that first leaped to deliver a standing ovation when the Taoiseach had finished his 10page script. The gesture spread, like a Mexican wave, to the Opposition benches.

All eyes moved to Caoimhin O Caolain. Yes, he was on his feet, too, not clapping madly but enough to disclose that Sinn Fein is sound on the agreement. Mind you, people like Dick Spring think his suggestion that two different electoral strategies be adopted, North and South, for the May 22nd referendum is simply "absurd".

All Dail business had been set aside yesterday to allow the Bill enabling next month's referendum to be rushed through. Given the importance of the deal, would this day not be indelibly sketched for ever in the political psychic of the country? No, as it happened, but any day is unusual when Proinsias De Rossa says Gerry Adams ranks among those deserving enormous credit.

Statements from all the party leaders were treated to applause, although the frequency levels dropped off dramatically as the afternoon progressed.

With the exception of the Socialist Party TD, Joe Higgins, politicians across the parties sang largely from the same worthy hymn sheet (Joe Higgins, however, believes the agreement will be found "fatally flawed" and does not amount to an attack on sectarian divisions and sectarian politics).

Ruairi Quinn, in an unforgettable blue tie patterned with huge flowers, left people scratching their heads with his inscrutable comment that Labour's role in "articulating a third way between the opposing tenets of unionism and nationalism" had never been properly reported.

"I know the reasons why, but today is not a time for recrimination in relation to the partiality of commentators and others in this respect," he added enigmatically.

Like Michael McDowell in the past, Des O'Malley has to be watched at all times. He strongly disagreed with the release of nine IRA prisoners and was "amazed" that Martin Ferris's "demand" for the release of all republican inmates elicited no response from the Government until the Tanaiste had commented at the weekend and the Minister for Justice had referred to the matter yesterday.

Sinn Fein's idea of politics and his were irreconcilable, he declared. It was "unthinkable and totally unacceptable" that the killers of Garda Jerry McCabe should go free. If the State did not defend those who defend the State, we might be left with a "thin blue line".

A very dissatisfied thin blue line. Even as the politicians prepared their speeches, members of the Garda Representative Association were massing outside the gates of Leinster House demonstrating for increased pay levels from the Government.