Regardless of what was said, yesterday's meeting between the Taoiseach and the DUP confirms that the game is on.
The deputy DUP leader, Peter Robinson, "sighs" to the Belfast Telegraph at the idea that Ian Paisley meeting a Taoiseach is notable: "The media always try to make something of this. The truth is that I have been involved in dozens of meetings with the Irish Government, as has Ian." Snowballs for Seán Lemass? So last century.
Peter Robinson is a master of sighs, groans and impatient dismissal, the alternate nudge-and-shove techniques of a man who plays tugboat to a massive liner.
One difference between republicans and Paisleyites is that many republicans badly wanted a way out of a war of attrition: with pride intact, but out. Many in the DUP may have only begun to realise they, too, are on a journey. For the observer, it is no easier to be sure how far the leader is prepared to travel and whether he has left the itinerary to his deputy and his developing team.
The DUP remains a curious organisation, possessed of at least one clique of smart operators in the midst of devout Paisleyites, but still mid-evolution. Electoral victory enthralled the grassroots. The arrival of Ulster Unionist defectors eager to be debriefed, with others on the way leaving scorched earth in place of UU branches, prolongs the delight. Whatever their fears about negotiation, the DUP troops are as sustained as Sinn Féiners by their new status as political players.
Many must also realise that "the new regime", as Robinson likes to call it, is secured because Sinn Féin has similarly ousted the SDLP. Some will have registered, with a twinge of alarm, that Sinn Féin and the DUP are now mutually dependent, that unionist voters are steadily less likely to choose the feeble Ulster Unionists while Sinn Féin is ascendant, that nationalists will support Sinn Féin's bruisers in greater numbers the more they watch the DUP reminding the world they rule the roost now.
Adjustment to the new order is occasionally painful to consider, embarrassing to watch.
The SDLP meeting in south Belfast that descended into bad-tempered exchanges sounded more like a council of despair than a prelude to serious rethinking. The stony-hearted gods of destruction never let up.
Jeffrey Donaldson's first caper on a DUP platform must have been hard enough for his former party without the mass desertion from Trimble's own branch. This occurred at the same meeting in which David McNarry, a man other Trimbleites regard as an unfunny court jester, called for a closer relationship with the DUP, with his leader by his side.
By contrast, the gathering that showcased the trio of defectors led by Mr Donaldson demonstrated to perfection why the old order fell. There were grey heads as in Ulster Unionism but a healthy mix of bright-eyed young. Robinson told them that negotiation from now on would be hard-headed, but negotiation there would be. There was rough fun. Standing ovations, laughter, booing and hissing filled Lisburn Orange Hall as Donaldson and newly elected Assembly members Arlene Foster and Norah Beare trashed the party they'd deserted, mercilessly and accurately.
He could see the difference in his new party already, said Donaldson. "Yesterday we met the Secretary of State in Hillsborough. We spent most of Monday preparing for that meeting. In the Ulster Unionist Party, you just turn up (chuckles). There's no plan, there's no strategy. Sure it's all in David's head (hoots of laughter). Somebody recently said the best politician in Ulster would have Jeffrey Donaldson's heart and David Trimble's head. Would you want his head?" This brought the house down.
The old master absent from Lisburn Orange Hall turned in his own cracking performance last week. BBCNI's best interviewer Noel Thompson questioned Ian Paisley for 19 minutes, by far the longest exposure the 77-year-old has allowed, or been allowed, for quite some time. After years of public memory lapses and rambling, second-rate rhetoric, he was sharp as ever. "I know how you tick, my friend," he said to Thompson, big voice gone but bullying instincts intact. He burned no bridges about the review that starts next week: nor did he show the least magnanimity.
The ancient News Letter, Trimble-supporting through negotiations and agreement, has begun to realign. Editorials reflect new ownership as well as changed times, the most striking painting Paisley as agent of progress: "The Big Man's support is such that if he says it's good enough for him, it will be good enough for his supporters." The News Letter points out his greatest advantage: that if he ever does begin negotiations in earnest, he will not be deafened by anathemas from Ian Paisley.