Aberdeen is set to become a centre for politicians of all hues in Ireland to meet, talk in private, and build links with Scotland.
Plans have been announced for an Irish-Scottish Forum to be created at Aberdeen University, starting with talks later this year which will bring together unionist and nationalist leaders, British and Irish civil servants and leading academics.
The forum is to be part of the new Irish-Scottish studies department at the 503-year old university, and is expected to be part-funded by the Government's Irish Sailors' and Soldiers' Land Trust.
This was established to support Irish servicemen who fought for Britain in the 1914-18 war, and is now being wound up.
The idea is to give key players "intellectual space" behind closed doors to explore options for the peace process and other issues on the island of Ireland.
It is also expected to attract unionist politicians, who hope to stress the historical, but fast renewing, links with Scotland.
The forum will link with the new British-Irish Council, which is being set up as part of the Belfast Agreement and which will put politicians from Dublin and Belfast around a table with their counterparts from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
The forum is also aimed at seeing how the UK's raft of constitutional changes could help the Irish peace process, while examining the religious and cultural links between Protestants and Catholics in Scotland and Ireland.
The forum is one of the first tangible results of the presence of an Irish consul-general in Edinburgh.
Mr Daniel Mulhall, who took up his post five months ago, commented: "There has not been much dialogue at that level in Scotland in recent times. But given Scotland's population and connections with both communities in Ireland, there's potential for greater understanding to be developed through contact and discussion of a kind which has been part and parcel of the broader Anglo-Irish dialogue."
Prof Tom Devine, who heads the Irish-Scottish studies department in Aberdeen, said: "The ethnic and cultural background of the unionists in Northern Ireland is Scottish, so we hope Scotland can provide a bridge into Northern Ireland . . .
"What we can offer is a good academic ambience for the interchange of ideas."