IN a drinks room decorated in tasteful pink and cream, the two men were alone at last. Gone were colleagues, advisers and note-takers. They spoke for 35 minutes, truly momentous times.
One, a former academic lawyer; the other, a one-time barman. Today, they lead Ulster Unionism and Irish republicanism, and this was the first time those incumbents had met in three-quarters of a century.
David Trimble, Northern Ireland╒s First Minister, and Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein president, still have to shake hands, but their face-to-face meeting was civil enough. They even took the opportunity to try out each other╒s first names.
Nothing much was decided. The decommissioning of IRA weapons is still the stumbling-block as Sinn Fein pushes to join the power-sharing executive, and those issues dominated the conversation. But that the meeting took place at all was progress.
Both men searched for positive descriptions of their encounter. They agreed it was cordial, constructive and business-like.
Stormont was so long the citadel of Unionist power, and Mr Adams skipped down the magnificent staircase in Parliament Buildings without even a glance at the statue of Lord Craigavon, who was, as Sir James Craig, the first prime minister of Northern Ireland.
Mr Adams praised Mr Trimble, the first Ulster Unionist leader to meet a Sinn Fein leader head-to-head since Sir James negotiated with Michael Collins in 1922. He believed no other member of Mr Trimble╒s party could have brought it so far so quickly.
Mr Adams said: ╥He is a man I can do business with; he is a man I have to do business with; and he is a man who I will do business with. This is more important than the personalities involved.
╥This is not about me or David Trimble. It╒s about our children and it╒s about our future.╙
Mr Trimble was waving an olive branch too, and he had left off his favoured barbed wire wrapping for it. His words on decommissioning were measured, clothed in the language of reason.
He avoided using the term ╥terrorists╙. He made it clear he was not seeking their ╥surrender╙ or ╥humiliation╙.
He said: ╥There is a realisation among all those people who have been involved in paramilitary activity that it is all going to end. It╒s all ending now and we must therefore see in a reasonably short time the inevitable dealing with the consequences.╙
He surprised nationalist opinion. He announced that the first meeting of the North-South ministerial council, long resisted by Unionists, would take place within the next month or so.
Both men knew their bi-lateral meeting was a boil which had to be lanced. They feared there might be a resulting wound, vulnerable to attack from hardline Unionists.
But hardline Unionist reaction was muted. The critics in Mr Trimble╒s political backyard believe he will sit in government with Sinn Fein before the IRA hands in any of its weapons. They point out, as does Mr Adams, that the Good Friday Agreement makes no explicit linkage. But they seem resigned to it.
It was Mr Adams who turned to his dictionary of quotations to describe yesterday╒s meeting. It was, he said, the first step of the journey he hoped would lead to nationalists, Unionists, republicans and loyalists peacefully co-existing.
He quoted from Abraham Lincoln╒s second inaugural address in 1865 as the American civil war ended. ╥With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right╔ let us strive on to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation╒s wounds╔ to do all which may achieve╔ a just and a lasting peace.╙
