Optimism finally conquers elements

It was more like Christmas than Easter when the talks finally ended, and the unseasonable weather wasn't inappropriate. About 18 hours overdue, a broadly-based political agreement had at last been born, and everyone was already looking forward to a season of goodwill.

The end was supposed to be a formality yesterday, but the fickle weather of recent days has mirrored the progress of the talks. The activities of the parties have been a variation on those weather forecast clocks where the little man appears in bad weather and the woman when it's dry.

Whenever Sinn Fein was out in the past two days, the unionists were in, and vice versa. So when Mitchel McLaughlin came out with a sunny forecast mid-morning and there was no opposite reaction from the unionists, even the pessimists thought the end was in sight.

But by mid-afternoon, we were in crisis again. The PUP's Billy Hutchinson went for a quiet walk in the car-park - with 50 photographers - and confirmed what everybody already knew, that the unionists had a problem. Hutchinson couldn't hide his exasperation: if the UUP brought down the talks now, he said, Trimble's career was finished.

But then, uncannily, it was all over. The Downing Street spin-doctor, Alastair Campbell, held a briefing to announce that the long-delayed final plenary session had just begun. While the briefing was still going on, the huge press contingent learned with incredulity that the plenary was in live TV.

After months of shadowy briefings, it seemed contrary to the laws of nature that the climax of the proceedings should go out so publicly. But the effect was breathtaking, and the immensity of what was happening was difficult to take in.

"It's over, they've agreed everything," somebody explained to a colleague, who was struggling to understand why everybody in the talks room was thanking everybody else.

The closing scene of the talks took place in Stormont's mother of all car-parks. Some people thought it a bad omen that, at the very moment the Taoiseach and Prime Minister shook hands, it started raining hailstones. And if you were really superstitious, you'd fear for the future of David Trimble, who was well and truly pelted with hail throughout his speech.

But it was a day for optimism. David Ervine called it an "honorable, decent agreement", and the Women's Coalition threw all their papers in the air in celebration. And as they and all the other men and women came out to predict good times ahead, you couldn't but hope it stays dry for them.