At 12.52 p.m. on Thursday, the President of the European Commission Mr Jacques Santer and his Monetary Affairs Commissioner Mr Yves Thibault de Silguy pulled the curtain from the electronic scoreboard to reveal to EU finance ministers the rates. Within three-quarters of an hour they were fixed in stone, irrevocably, and the single currency was effectively born.
"One euro = 0.787564 Irish pounds," the board said. So it is now and so it shall be for as long as the pound still exists, a matter now of only some three- and-a-half years.
The accompanying table shows the official rates struck for all the currencies against the euro and unoffical conversion rates between the currencies of the 11 member-states. For many ministers it was also a chance to reinforce their determination to see real political and economic integration follow the single currency's launch.
Tributes were paid to the figures from the past who had made it all possible - Luxembourg's former prime minister Mr Pierre Werner, who set the ball rolling in 1969, Mr Jacques Delors, Dr Helmut Kohl, Mr Francois Mitterrand . . . Even Mr Ruairi Quinn got a special mention from his old friend and sparring partner, the Dutch finance minister Mr Gerrit Zalm.
The Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy was no less effusive than the rest. "Economic and Monetary Union is one of the most far-reaching and momentous steps in the history of the European enterprise," he told them.
He admitted later to journalists he could hardly believe how smooth it all had been and confessed to the jitters that ministers and officials had in the past shared about the whole monetary union process. But would it work, he was asked.
"You may have noticed," the Minister responded, "there is no procedure for getting out - a bit like Irish marriages pre the referendum." But agreeing that the process was going to be irrevocable had been a key element in concentrating minds and getting the project right, he argued.
"This is going to work," Mr McCreevy insisted. Although there would be some ups and downs, he said, the euro had already been tested in the financial turmoil on world markets in the autumn and had proved a zone of stability.
The Minister said that with Britain on the sidelines, weighing the best interests of Ireland had been a real problem for Irish policy makers .
But he took issue with the calls of some fellow ministers for the launch of the single currency to be matched by further moves to political union and strengthened economic co-ordination.
"I don't see the inevitability of economic union," he said. Perhaps it would evolve over a period and be seen "by our children", but we should not assume now that we are going further down that road, he said.
Mr McCreevy's caution on further integration was not matched by the absent German Finance Minister, Mr Oskar Lafontaine, who issued a statement arguing that "the start of monetary union must be the start of a new sort of politics". (Mr Lafontaine, like the British Chancellor Mr Gordon Brown was enjoying the holiday season en famille elsewhere). "The severe labour market problems in most euro zone countries demand a common strategy to create new jobs," Mr Lafontaine's statement said. "Only together can we find a lasting and effective solution to the economic and employment problems in Europe." His Economics Minister, Mr Werner Muller, told ministers the birth of the euro would push the EU towards greater economic policy co-ordination and made a veiled reference to Bonn's campaign for further tax harmonisation to counter the poaching of jobs and investment through "unfair" fiscal regimes.
"National measures which have a detrimental effect on other states represent a threat. Nobody can play on their own," he said. Italy's veteran Treasury Minister Mr Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said the switch to the euro represented a "decisive step" towards the EU's founding goal of "ever closer union" of the peoples of Europe.
Mr Santer took up a similar theme. "It is now up to us to see that we embark on the next stage leading to political unity, which I think is the . . . consequence of economic unity, so that Europe can in the future also play a political role on the international stage, leading even as far as a common defence policy," he said. France's Finance Minister Mr Dominique Strauss Kahn said: "I do not feel any less French, Mr Ciampi no less Italian and Mr Juncker no less a Luxemburger. But we all feel a bit more European."
British, Danish and Swedish representatives all wished the euro project well, arguing that although they had opted out, initially at least, its success would be of benefit to all EU members. Following a statement from the President of the European Central Bank, Mr Wim Duisenberg, endorsing the Commission's calculation of the fixed exchange rates, ministers unanimously agreed them.
Outside children released some 3,000 balloons while indoors, at the end of their press conference, ministers struggled with the one and only real problem of the day - opening the champagne. Eventually, as others wrestled futilely on, to the delight of journalists, the steely grip of Mr Duisenberg prised the cork from his huge nine-litre bottle.
