On Tuesday, while watching the proceedings at Stormont, not for the first time in my life, I thought, "Thank God for Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern" writes David Adams .
Though I have reservations about some aspects of the new Assembly - most notably the lack of any meaningful opposition and the autocratic tendencies of the two largest parties in the Executive - I am delighted that, at last, we have a fully representative, devolved government in Northern Ireland.
With the best will in the world, scrutiny committees that are made up almost entirely of members of ruling parties can hardly be described as meaningful opposition. However, given a fair wind, there is reason to hope that the parties will continue to moderate and that the Assembly will evolve into something more akin to the kind of legislature that one is entitled to expect in a liberal democracy.
Most importantly, for all its faults, the new Assembly enjoys the support of every significant sector of society. A shared allegiance to local structures of governance and, it is hoped, a continued positive example set by elected representatives, can only accelerate reconciliation between the two major communities. As long as such reconciliation remains largely unfinished business, it would be premature to claim that the peace process has reached a successful conclusion.
Notwithstanding that, it is fair to say that after Tuesday, given time and willingness, there is nothing to halt the development of a normal functioning society in the North.
The people of Northern Ireland - and indeed of the UK and Ireland as a whole - have Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair to thank for this. We owe them both an enormous debt of gratitude.
They deserve the lion's share of credit for bringing peace and stability to Northern Ireland and for developing a level of friendship between the Republic and the United Kingdom that was previously unimaginable. Without their patience, tenacity and formidable political skills, Tuesday's restoration of the Assembly would not have been possible.
On numerous occasions when the peace process was at stalemate and things looked utterly hopeless, they could have been forgiven for quietly leaving the obdurate, brooding tribes to their own devices. Instead, they battled on until a fully representative political forum was finally established.
On an equal footing at Stormont, old foes can now seek to manage often profound difference while working together for the good of all.
Soon Tony Blair will depart the stage, his Irish legacy intact and well deserved. But what of Bertie Ahern? What does the future hold for the Taoiseach who, as well as everything else, has presided over the most prosperous period in Ireland's history? What now for the republican leader who, without bluster, bomb or bullet, has brought Tone's dream of a unity between Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter closer to reality than all of his predecessors put together? If this claim appears fanciful, then consider what Ahern has achieved in uniting the previously irreconcilable factions of the North in a common endeavour. Consider, too, how he has improved relations right across this island, has managed to build excellent relationships with the "old enemy across the water" and, for good measure, has become liked, respected and trusted by all sections of unionism.
Courtesy of the Belfast Agreement, the "national question" which had hung like a bad smell over Ireland for so long was settled on Bertie's watch, as well. What future, then, for the man who was so committed to finding a solution to the divisions that have plagued Ireland for centuries, and condemned so many to early graves, that he left his mother's funeral in Dublin to travel North to finish negotiating the Belfast Agreement? Is he to be brought low by tittle-tattle, unproven accusations and a drip-feed of innuendo? I sincerely hope not, for he deserves much better than that.
My latest silent prayer of thanks for Blair and Ahern was sparked by their speeches on Tuesday. They brought some decorum when it was most needed. Like in the aftermath of a Stalinist putsch where people and events are just written out of history, in their first official pronouncements as First and Deputy First Ministers neither Ian Paisley nor Martin McGuinness thought fit to give credit to anyone who had gone before them.
They didn't even bother to invite the likes of Séamus Mallon and our two Nobel Peace Prize-winners, David Trimble and John Hume, along to the Stormont ceremony. (Hume was only there courtesy of the SDLP.)
By contrast, the two premiers spread praise far and wide and were careful to give credit to political friend and foe alike. In the middle of an election campaign, Ahern rose above his own personal and party-political interests to name-check, among many others, the likes of Liz O'Donnell of the PDs, Dick Spring of Labour and John Bruton of Fine Gael.
By their magnanimity, both he and Blair inadvertently reminded us of what separates the statesman from the local politician.