An "amazing grace" was how Eoghan Harris described the Belfast Agreement in a speech to the Ulster Unionist Party conference last weekend. Peter Mandelson, the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, put it differently: "There is no more important task than finding a deal which is acceptable to everybody. I shall work night and day to achieve that." The message from both men focused on the moral and political urgency of moving the accord forward without delay.
There are times in politics, as in life, when one can feel the atmosphere begin to thaw. Two events, happening within the past few days, have offered a glimpse of the way ahead, beyond the chill that has frozen progress in the peace process for so long.
The first - and possibly the more significant - was the Ulster Unionists' annual conference in Enniskillen on Saturday. In this potent setting, a town which has suffered so much over the long years of violence, important truths became clear. The first is that David Trimble is completely committed to making the agreement work, that for him personally there is no alternative. As important is the respect he is accorded by an impressive majority of his party.
Naturally, there were snipers waiting in the wings. Some delegates wore stickers bearing the slogan "Don't blame me, I voted against the agreement." But they remained remarkably discreet, at least in public. The overwhelming mood among the 500 delegates was serious and thoughtful. These people want their leaders to find a route through the present maze of difficulties.
Trimble himself received a standing ovation for a speech that was both courageous and adroit. He offered an olive branch to critics within his party, but was scathing about those who attacked from outside. He even managed a few jokes. But the message was inescapable. The agreement provides the unionist community with its only possible strategy.
There can be no going back to the old days of majority rule. Political reality dictates that any new structures will have to include republicans as well as the SDLP. The Sinn Fein vote was growing. Had any of the "alternative strategists" within unionism thought whether and how that support could be reduced? There was a powerful moral edge to the argument provided, at David Trimble's invitation, by commentator Eoghan Harris.
In theory, he was there to talk about the Ulster Unionist Party and the media, but he used the platform as an evangelical pulpit, challenging the unionist community to recognise and embrace "the profoundly redemptive" potential of the agreement. As he himself predicted, there was quite a lot that the delegates found hard to accept.
The whole business of decommissioning, Harris argued, is not their responsibility. It should be placed squarely where it belongs, with the British government. Their duty as unionists, as Protestants even, is to form an executive and then challenge all the other parties, including Tony Blair, to solve the arms problem. In other words, Harris - who expands on his thesis on this page - offered them a moral escape route from the most pressing problem facing them, and it was striking that most delegates listened intently. Whether they were persuaded, it was impossible to judge. But all through the day, I had the powerful impression that many of these people do, desperately, want to take the risks involved in order to move forward. They need leadership and they also need to be convinced that the game will be worth the candle.
That is why the second event of recent days - Peter Mandelson's appointment to the Northern Ireland job - is so important. Here is a man who not only has formidable tactical skills, but has always been committed to effecting political change: "making things happen" as he has described it himself. That is what he did when, as adviser first to Neil Kinnock and then Tony Blair, he took the British Labour Party from being virtually unelectable to the landslide electoral victory of 1997.
I've written about Peter Mandelson before in this column, and about why I believe he could be an important force in helping the progress towards stability in Northern Ireland. I was fortunate enough to work with him on a number of television programmes about Northern Ireland when he was a producer for the current affairs programme, Weekend World.
As a colleague he was endlessly curious about the details of the current situation, resourceful and patient. Later, as a guru of New Labour, he was accused of sacrificing socialist principles to the pursuit of power. But, again, this is all part of his philosophy that politics is about making things happen, and that precisely nothing can be achieved in permanent opposition.
Mo Mowlam made an extraordinary contribution to peace on this island. It wasn't a question, as has been suggested in some recent tributes, of her touchy-feely style.
She had a steely courage in taking difficult decisions when necessary. She also behaved with great dignity when she was increasingly sidelined by Tony Blair. But more important than either of these qualities was her skill in taking the politics of peace to so-called ordinary people. By convincing them that life could be different, that Northern Ireland was not predestined to suffer sectarian violence and hatred, she helped to build the huge popular support for the Belfast Agreement which still constitutes the best hope for its success. Peter Mandelson brings other skills to the situation. In recent months, and particularly since the debacle of last July, there has been a growing feeling that the process, and those involved in it, are running out of steam. The relationship between Mo Mowlam and the unionists had become impossible. Even the ever buoyant George Mitchell seemed to have been infected with gloom and pessimism.
By contrast, Peter Mandelson comes fresh to the fray, anxious to remake his reputation after his fall from grace 10 months ago.
He is close to Tony Blair and that will make it much more difficult for all and sundry to go running to No 10 Downing Street to whine to the Prime Minister. He is seriously ambitious, which is no bad thing. My own hunch is that he believes the situation in Northern Ireland just now offers an important opportunity to a politician who wants to be remembered for making a difference. Let us wish him "Godspeed".