It's time to paraphrase Winston Churchill. He said "jawjaw is better than war-war". After the first formal sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly, one could say that "borebore is better than bang-bang".
One senior unionist summed the day up pithily as "nice and dull". He added hastily: "Dull isn't a bad thing." No doubt he, like many others, could remember days that demeaned the name of parliamentary democracy, when instead of consensus we had a bear-garden.
Something fundamental has changed. Observers put it down to the referendum result, North and South. One could engage in semi-theological arguments as to whether it was an exercise in national self-determination or not but the figures were fairly clear-cut in the North and overwhelming in the Republic.
The people had spoken and their message was: no more war and no more petty political bickering either. Even bitter opponents of the Good Friday pact were restrained in the Stormont chamber yesterday.
David Trimble said it was a day for "nuts and bolts" which provoked one wag to murmur that it was a change from "just nuts". We had Gerry Adams offering to be Ian Paisley's friend: nobody is holding their breath. John Taylor, victim of an assassination attempt at the start of the Troubles, felt able to joke about a shooting competition Northern Ireland had won at the Commonwealth Games. Adams and others laughed as he pointed out to the Sinn Fein leader that it had been won with legally-held firearms.
It will not always be sweetness and light. Sinn Fein was unhappy with the vagueness of the report by Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon on progress towards setting up the executive. But the First Minister indicated strongly that the decommissioning roadblock would have to be removed first.
There were predictable rows at the start over the use of the Irish language and the question of which flags should be displayed but, where previously these issues could have dragged on for hours, this time the acting Speaker, Lord Alderdice, was able to move the proceedings on without much fuss. On the issue of whether "Ta" and "Nil" could be used instead of "Aye" and "No", John Taylor came out with a linguistic gem when he reminded members that "Ta" means "thanks" in some parts of England.
A foreign visitor unversed in Northern politics would have assumed from the tone of debate that this Assembly had been sitting for years. There were times when old hands in the media had to pinch themselves to be sure that Martin McGuinness really was sitting eight or 10 feet away from Ian Paisley and that the Rev William McCrea was standing just ahead of Gerry Adams in the restaurant queue at lunchtime.
But the fact that it was an unremarkable day with no lurid scenes or walkouts does not give any grounds for complacency that the difficult problems will be resolved. Mr Trimble's position in the Assembly is by no means free of hazard and his backbenchers could still lose their nerve if the decommissioning issue is mishandled. Sinn Fein, meanwhile, is drumming the table over the establishment of the executive, its admission ticket to the North-South Ministerial Council.
During the long days of deadlock and hopelessness at the talks over the previous two years, many doubted a day such as yesterday would ever dawn. But the seemingly impossible came to pass. Having campaigned and fought for years to bring down the hated Stormont regime, nationalists and republicans have now taken partial ownership. The old building still retains some of its unionist trappings: Carson is as defiant as ever outside and Sir James Craig lords it at the top of the stairs.
The hurried nature of the transition to the new system was evident from the wooden pallets and remnants of carpet propped against the walls of the basement although, as Mr Trimble himself remarked, the chamber itself has been "splendidly refurbished". John Taylor, himself a minister in the old Stormont, boasted that neither the Scottish nor Welsh assemblies would be housed in so fine a building. Some observers even claimed that the fact the parties were now operating in a proper parliamentary environment rather than the aesthetic nightmare of Castle Buildings was having a subliminal but positive effect on their deliberations.
Can the nationalists learn to stop worrying and love Stormont? Can the unionists sleep easy while there is still a pike in the thatch? Will the new dispensation catch on with the public or will they see it as something remote from their daily lives, like those decades of direct rule? After yesterday's experience, even pessimists may have to decommission some of their despair.