Consequences and contradictions will unroll for a while yet. "Who would have thought it" still rolls off many a tongue. But goodwill towards the administration taking shape at Stormont has been more prevalent than bad, which in itself says a lot about the Northern Ireland of April 2007, writes Fionnuala O Connor
It is by now almost hackneyed to note that talents fit to inspire multitudes, customised instead to feed their discontent, could also have been designed to protect the sort of edifice Ian Paisley has spent his life denouncing. Who better to be shameless about his own about-face, having been shameless about so much else. (There is, of course, that other shameless entity, formerly known as Sinn Féin/IRA). The DUP leader has taken to the new era with the gusto expended for so long on negativity, armoured with the old bombast but still adroit enough to dispense with overstatement and rely instead on well-turned evasion. In a relaxed interview with veteran UTV man Ken Reid this week he agreed that initial meetings with his opposite number, deputy first minister and former IRA leader Martin McGuinness, had gone well. He declined to elaborate.
The tone was as reasonable and studiously inoffensive as might be expected from any seasoned politician embarking on an unlikely coalition: "I'd rather not make comments on the man I'm facing at the end of the table." There was much more: the "difference in Northern Ireland today and Northern Ireland as it was", a mild assertion of his success in restoring unionist pride. Apparently reflexive references to "this country" may grate on some nerves. Northern nationalists might feel slightly under-represented in the description of "two parts to Ireland", the "unionist part that I have some say on" and the "republican part". But the first minister corrected himself in mid-sentence, as he has done repeatedly, to make strenuous reference to a shared agenda for "the people, all the people of Northern Ireland". It is as marked an improvement on the old equation of "the people" with the "unionist people" as anyone could seriously expect at this stage.
With a touch of the satisfaction reserved in the past for dressing down reporters impertinent enough to ask awkward questions, Ian Paisley also announced that he intends to serve a full four-year term of office. There will be no retirement in a year or so, as some predicted. His God permitting, the new first minister will celebrate his 85th birthday still in post with his Sinn Féin counterpart.
It is hard to foresee the knock-on effect regarding the DUP's future development for a deputy leader (Peter Robinson) who turns 60 next year (like Gerry Adams) and an ambitious son about to spend four years on show as his father's junior minister and probable replacement as North Antrim MP.
Other ramifications have yet to emerge. It may look more like evolution than revolution for Free Presbyterianism's founding moderator to step out of that post citing his new responsibility, whatever the dimensions of disquiet in his congregation. The concept of rotating departmental ministers - aired, if not yet firmly promised - may likewise take the sting out of the multiple occupancy enjoyed by, say, Peter Robinson MP, MLA, minister in the new executive and Castlereagh councillor. Then again, some in the ranks may face sharing power with Sinn Féin a little easier in mind with the promise of Robinson's sharp eye on the books and tight hand on the purse-strings.
Rotating ministries may not turn out to be as brisk and all-embracing a practice as during the last DUP spell in office, when it helped to sustain the fiction that the party was not, precisely, sharing an executive with Sinn Féin - or not in exactly the same way as the UUP.
But why would the leader depart early? He says, with perfect truth, that only he could do what he has done. This is also a man having fun playing head of state, even in harness with the recently unspeakable. Witness those joint congratulations with Martin McGuinness to the Irish cricket team, with an invitation to a reception at Stormont, and joint condolence to George Bush on the Virginia campus killings.
Last month's election demonstrated that no significant section of opinion any longer opposes powersharing, and there will be no dissenting voices in the Assembly. But more than 100 Catholics have just been warned by police that loyalists have their names and addresses, details apparently taken from police computers. Loyalists scoff at the prospect of decommissioning. The latest report from the Independent Monitoring Commission will underline the continued potential for violence from loyalists, as it will also from splinter republicans.
The will to soft-pedal awkwardnesses is limited, as is only proper: confronting difficult questions will test all the weak spots.
The honeymoon has been as serene a beginning as anyone could have hoped in the most unlikely marriage.