He was fighting off a cold but the folk from what is known as Northern Ireland's "Vodka and Volvo belt" gave Mark Durkan the warmest of welcomes last night.
"I couldn't say enough good things about him," gushed one female member of the North Down Ulster Unionist Association as she slipped out of the meeting to use the loo. "Although he does go on a bit."
A hotel on Co Down's affluent gold coast provided the luxurious setting for what turned out to be a deeply civilised showdown.
Lady Sylvia Hermon, chairperson of the North Down Unionist Association was always confident that it would go smoothly. "We are a very polite association," she beamed before the meeting began. "This is a happy beginning for us all." For a man wearing so many hats - Deputy First Minister, SDLP leader, Minister for Finance and Personnel - Durkan looked remarkably relaxed, grinning widely as he met Lady Hermon in the foyer of the Clandeboye Lodge Hotel. A stag's head mounted on the wall of the hotel eyed the SDLP leader as he made his way into the unprecedented meeting where some of the Unionists - tweed jackets and caps - looked dressed for a good night's hunting.
Mr Durkan emerged smiling and unscathed. "I didn't come here for praise but it has been very useful and given me things to think about," he said.
Audience members, meanwhile, were heaping praise on the Derry man. "I was so thrilled to have him here," said a woman in a bright red jacket. "It was an excellent meeting . . . I didn't have problems with anything he said but then I would go into a United Ireland tomorrow."
Sir John Gorman, a Catholic Unionist said the "mood music" between UUP leader David Trimble and Mark Durkan was very good and theirs would be a very productive partnership.
While Durkan was wooing the unionists, a newly married bride wandered around the hotel. "Don't believe a word they say," said one of the wedding party.
Most unionists appeared convinced although not everyone was impressed by unionism's new best friend. One man said the affair had been a bit long-winded.
Asked whether she could see a time when Gerry Adams might address unionists in such a fashion, one woman made a face.