Like the paupers allowed into the Big House only at Christmas, the press finally made it into Castle Buildings yesterday after 10 weeks out in the cold. The occasion was Senator George Mitchell's swansong, and everybody was there.
Everybody, of course, except the anti-agreement camp. The Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein, the SDLP, Alliance, the Women's Coalition, the fringe loyalists and Northern Ireland Office officials mixed and mingled like old friends.
The Sinn Fein team all sported very new-looking green ribbons - nothing like a bit of symbolism to allay grassroots fears when deals are being done.
Senator Mitchell said he would be glad to go home, but Northern Ireland would always hold a special place in his heart. The politicians were won over. They burst into applause as he finished. Even an RTE journalist joined in.
Next, it was the parties' moment of glory. Their representatives, accompanied by two or three colleagues, took it in turns to address the media. Gerry Adams obviously felt in need of more support. Eight party members stood by his side.
David Ervine was so happy he almost burst into song. "In the words of Van Morrison, the healing has begun," he proclaimed. The parties all offered their sympathy to the media on the inhospitable conditions they endured during the Mitchell review.
Gerry Adams thanked journalists for putting up with it "for Ireland and for peace and justice".
Apart from the Women's Coalition, all the main speeches by the parties were delivered by men. Sinn Fein's Bairbre de Brun and the SDLP's Brid Rodgers did address the media but solely in Irish.
"And imagine how many women speakers there would be if the men had Irish?" complained one female politician. Up the road, in the canteen at Parliament Buildings, the DUP were huddled around a table. They weren't discussing the deal or plotting Mr Trimble's overthrow, they were chatting about the US soap opera Dallas.
Peter Robinson, Nigel Dodds and St Clair McAllister, recalled the shooting of J.R. Jim Wells confided that his favourite character was Pam Ewing, a.k.a. Victoria Principal, "for her intellectual abilities only, let me stress".
Gregory Campbell thought the Dallas enthusiasm contradicted stereotypes of his party. "The press always says the DUP is living in the 1690s, now they know it's the 1970s," he quipped.