REPRESENTATIVES from Northern Ireland's main political parties left South Africa last night after spending three days at a secluded conference centre discussing South Africa's political settlement and whether it had any lessons for their effort to negotiate an end to the conflict at home.
South Africa's Minister of Constitutional Affairs, Mr Mohammed Valli Moosa - whose ministry hosted the conference - was upbeat about the conference, characterising the mood of his departing Irish guests as "solution orientated".
So, too, was the organiser of the conference, Prof Padraig O'Malley, of the John W McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts. He described the feedback from his Irish compatriots as "positive".
All agreed, Prof O'Malley said that they had learned a lot. Psychological barriers had been broken, he added, referring to the discovery by Ms Pearl Sager, of the Women's Coalition, that she, a woman from a "loyalist background", had a lot in common with Mr Martin McGuinness of, Sinn Fein.
The Irish delegates were appreciative of the visit to the centre by President Nelson Mandela and took to heart his maxim that it was not enough to recognise the need for negotiations.
There had to be a real commitment to negotiations and a realisation that they were negotiating with their political enemies and that stamina and determination were required if the inevitable hurdles were to be overcome, Prof O'Malley said, summarising Mr Mandela's message.