Arrival of the Olympic flame: The Special Olympics Flame of Hope finally arrived in Ireland to a warm and colourful - mostly blue - welcome in Co Down yesterday.
June gave a glimpse of its potential as the sun beamed down from a perfect sky on to the Bangor marina where the boats of Northern Ireland's well-to-do nodded at their moorings.
Schoolchildren lined the piers waving crepe-paper Olympic torches in anticipation of the real thing descending from the skies.
The flame, safely carried in a type of miner's lamp, was winched down from a thundering Royal Navy helicopter which whipped the harbour's placid, clear waters into spindrift.
Mr Tim Craig, a sergeant with the PSNI, was lowered on to the central pier to be received by his Chief Constable, Mr Hugh Orde, and Mr Peter Fitzgerald, the Deputy Commissioner of the Garda. Never before had a Southern policeman in uniform been so cheered in a unionist stronghold such as this.
The flame was transferred to a traditional Statue of Liberty-type torch and passed among a hundred-strong line of police officers from around the world, all kitted out in blue, before being ceremoniously jogged to the official welcoming ceremonies.
The flame had been lit on an Athens hilltop near the Acropolis by the rays of the sun and carried 15,000km across Europe through 17 major cities and 15 countries by relays of runners totalling 160.
It was escorted to the welcoming party in Bangor by four olive-branch-bearing "priestesses", two from Carlow and two from Kildare, who had been with the torch since it was lit on June 4th as "guardians of the flame".
The Mayor, Ms Ann Wilson, greeted both runners and dignitaries with a textbook Ulster-Scots rolling of every R-sound.
Mr Denis O'Brien, chairman of the Games organising committee, struck a poignant note when he suggested that all athletes would show there were no obstacles which could not be overcome.
He thanked the normally reserved folk of the borough for their generous welcome and promised a spectacle next week at Croke Park. It's not often in these parts that mention of the place merits such enthusiasm.
Mr Orde offered 100,000 welcomes (as béarla) from himself and "my colleague in An Garda Síochána" and said the Games highlighted courage and celebration of diversity.
Mr Fitzgerald said in his 39 years as a garda he thought he had seen it all. The warmth of the response to a senior figure in uniform in such a town was clearly not lost on him.
He said the guardians of the peace would relish the task of being guardians of the Flame of Hope.
He wished the spirit fostered by the Games would endure long after the events were over.
Mr Phil Nolan, chairman of Eircom, said his company was proud to sponsor what will be the largest global sporting event of 2003, with 160 international delegations involved.
He looked forward to the torch being borne through his native Enniskillen in Co Fermanagh.
Speaking afterwards Mr Orde - an accomplished marathon runner - said he might just jog a little with the flame some time today.
Mr Fitzgerald, who possibly brings more pressure to bear on the weighing scales, suggested that every good operation needed a good organiser - and duly suggested himself.
The torch (actually there are 15 of them, four of which are used simultaneously and kept alive by the original flame from the miner's lamp) was then paraded through Bangor's streets before heading for another ceremony on the steps of Stormont with the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy.
The torches will be the focal point of runs and processions in more than 130 towns and villages all over Ireland between now and the opening ceremony of the Games in Croke Park on this day week.