One senior Dublin observer remarked yesterday that Peter Mandelson was unlucky. Making representations on behalf of people, even millionaire supporters of the Dome, was something that "one does".
Taking up the point, Ulster Unionist MP John Taylor said nationalists should not gloat. And generally they didn't.
Mr Blair suggested that the "broad sweep of history" would judge Mr Mandelson well. "It has been the greatest privilege of my political life to play a part in the peace process in Northern Ireland, something far bigger and more important than any one individual or his career," said Mr Mandelson bravely.
The galling element for him, however, is that he must exit Northern Ireland - and his palatial home at Hillsborough Castle - with such real potential for positive closure on this historic peace and political process.
Anti-agreement unionists shed no crocodile tears - "he was the epitome of spin over substance," said No Ulster Unionist Peter Weir - but the Yes side, where they were not generous, at least kept mum.
Martin McGuinness had a number of "blazing rows" with Mr Mandelson. They had their disagreements, said Gerry Adams, but "I wish him well for the future". It is said that privately - outside of the arena where certain political games must be played - Mr Adams and the Northern Secretary enjoyed a useful rapport.
Mr Mandelson breezed into Belfast one miserable day in October 1999 as Mo Mowlam was packing her bags. He started well. Like the American army entering the first and second World Wars, his impact was swift. He launched his own DDay. Within weeks of his appointment we had devolution with the formal establishment of the Assembly and Executive.
But the problems then - decommissioning, particularly - were the same as now. David Trimble had gambled on government before guns, and when there was no significant response from the IRA by February Mr Mandelson suspended the Assembly and Executive, at the First Minister's behest.
This triggered fury from Sinn Fein who said that a last-minute statement from the IRA proved its bona fides on arms, and criticism from the SDLP and Dublin. But he battled on regardless. For three months we had difficult talks that culminated in the breakthrough of the Hills borough deal in May, and in the eight months afterwards we had republican recrimination that Mr Mandelson welshed on this deal.
Aside from the annual crisis of Drumcree, from which Northern Ireland emerged relatively unscathed, Mr Mandelson was politically preoccupied for much of last year and all of this year striving to resolve the issues of policing and demilitarisation.
He was excoriated by republicans and nationalists for what they termed his "maladroit" handling of Patten. One senior Irish source said of his management of the policing issue: "If he had spent as much time and energy implementing Patten as diluting it then policing would have been resolved months ago."
But, objectively, for every argument against these actions of Mr Mandelson there are counter-arguments to justify his position. For instance, in relation to the February 2000 suspension of the Assembly and Executive, Mr Mandelson contended that republicans knew what was at stake and that as they did not deliver on arms he had no option but to save Mr Trimble and the pro-agreement wing of unionism by suspension. This by extension was necessary to save the agreement.
On policing his view was that precipitate implementation of Patten would also have resulted in Trimble's downfall, with the consequent collapse of the agreement. Police reform had to be slow and tortuous, allowing time for unionism to come to terms with the fact that change was inevitable and the RUC was being consigned to the past.
While different politicians and observers have views on the issue according to their broader political stance, some weight must be given to Mr Mandelson's line. Historians will have the final say here, and perhaps it won't much matter so long as the current talks bring about an all-embracing settlement, as Mr Mandelson urged last week when speaking in Larne.
So, after the Prince of Darkness Peter Mandelson, and the individualistic Mo Mowlam before him, the political landscape is that bit duller. Last night the Scottish Secretary, Dr John Reid, was announced as his successor.
He will have to hit the ground running. The Main Business carries on relentlessly. Even as the final (or are they final?) stages of Mr Mandelson's political career were unfolding yesterday senior British and Irish officials were beavering away.
With the Westminster election looming the deadline is tight, and Mr Mandelson's departure will be unsettling to a degree. Talks sources from all sides, however, stress that in recent weeks Mr Blair has been taking charge of the negotiations. Some continuity will be lost but not at official level where Mr Blair's chief-of-staff Jonathan Powell and his Irish counterpart Dermot Gallagher are directing operations.
That will continue. The one concern, as expressed by Mr Adams, is that this could deflect Mr Blair from the current crucial stage of negotiations. It was unclear last night whether Mr Mandelson will spearhead - or at least be central to - Labour's election campaign. If he also loses that plum position then Mr Blair's focus may switch to the election rather than the political process.
That could pose concern at a time when there is not much more than a week to end the logjam. Dublin insiders counselled against despair. Mr Blair, with the Taoiseach and the pro-agreement parties, would not allow this to upset their concentration from the chief historic business at hand, they said.