UNIONIST councillors boycotted the installation dinner for Belfast's first Catholic mayor, Mr Al ban Maginness, because, they said, of the presence of Sinn Fein president Mr Gerry Adams.
The dinner went ahead in Belfast City Hall on Saturday night without councillors from the Ulster Unionist Party or the Democratic Unionist Party.
Afterwards, Mr Maginness, a barrister and SDLP member for north Belfast, urged councillors to work together and help "initiate a process of historical healing" in the city. "The alternative to partnership is to allow our city to fester in sectarian strife, to allow our economy to stagnate and to blight or ruin the lives of our young people."
He was accompanied by his wife and family of eight children. Belfast City Council has never previously had a Catholic or nationalist mayor.
Mr Maginness made his first official visit to the Republic at the weekend when he was guest speaker at the Border Regional Authority national conference in Bundoran, Co Donegal.
He said this was a very crucial time in the peace process as the two governments attempt to breath new life into the talks and break the logjam on arms decommissioning.
"Difficult as the process will be, particularly the relationship between arms decommissioning and real negotiations, it is made even more difficult as we approach the height of the `marching season' and the tensions and fears that this arouses threaten to poison the atmosphere for the talks still further."