A high-powered DUP delegation arrived in Killarney, the home of Irish tourism, yesterday to find the Union Jack fluttering in the breeze outside the Brehon Hotel, where they were to address the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, writes Stephen Collins in Killarney
If that was not enough to put them in a good mood, they were then ushered into the Ulster Room on the first floor of the hotel to be greeted by their Irish and British parliamentary hosts.
The DUP delegation of Peter and Iris Robinson, Nigel Dodds and Jeffrey Donaldson had lunch with their hosts, Pat Carey and Paul Murphy, the co-chairmen of the body, and were joined by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern.
No unionist politician had ever darkened the door of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, which has been in existence for 16 years, so nobody was quite sure what to expect from the DUP team.
Peter Robinson delivered a comprehensive address making it clear that they had come to outline their position and not to join the body, which is made up of representatives from the British parliament, the Oireachtas and other legislatures in these islands.
Mr Robinson started by saying that he didn't propose to settle all the outstanding issues in British-Irish relations which went back for 1,000 years or more but he would settle for the more modest task of telling the body his party's position.
That position was put firmly but courteously. The DUP wanted to co-exist in Northern Ireland with those who shared their homeland and to have harmonious and co-operative relations with the Republic. He emphasised that his party would share power with Sinn Féin only when they were sure the republican campaign was over and would not be bullied into an executive to a deadline set by the Irish and British governments.
During a question-and-answer session later, Iris Robinson spoke movingly of how she and her husband, her children and grandchildren had lived their lives behind bullet-proof glass, with panic buttons, TV monitors and police protection because of the IRA campaign of terror.
Nigel Dodds said people in the North found it strange that no party in the Republic would share power with Sinn Féin, yet the DUP was being given a deadline to go into government with the party.
All the DUP speakers emphasised that they would have to be sure that the IRA campaign and criminality were over for good and not just as a tactic, before they could agree to share power. But they accepted the notion in principle once there was completion.
Later Dermot Ahern, who met the group privately after their presentation, said he was very heartened. "The presentation was very good. They made it quite clear they are up for business," he said, although he wondered "if we are going to have to wait until the last Provo shoplifter is caught". In his own presentation, though, Mr Ahern was emphatic that there would have to be an agreement by November 24th.
How the DUP's caution and the deadline of the two governments can be reconciled only time will tell, but at least the mood was improved by yesterday's DUP jaunt to Killarney.