Christmas came early to the peaceful lakeside setting of the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, which was host yesterday to what unionists were calling "pantomime politics".
If this was a pantomime, Health Minister Ms Bairbre de Brun was definitely Cinderella, cruelly banned from the North-South Ministerial Council ball by wicked stepmother Mr David Trimble.
But much to the disgust of her detractors, chivalrous Health Minister Mr Martin (a very convincing Prince Charming) accompanied her for the afternoon. "It's a pan-nationalist rally," hissed disgruntled unionists from the wings, their noses severely out of joint.
"Oh, no, it isn't," smiled the de Brun/Martin double-act taking the stage together.
It was food, not politics, which was supposed to be on the agenda yesterday - the occasion was the first launch of a North-South body, the Food Safety Promotion Board. Ms de Brun and Mr Martin even posed for photographs with a colander and a carrot in an attempt to get food safety back on the menu.
While hecklers had been expected, it was only local UUP councillor and chairman of the Food Safety Promotion Board, Mr Bertie Kerr, who attended. He had a message for Sinn Fein about the Belfast Agreement. "We want it to work but we are not prepared to do all the work to make it work," he warned.