Some said it was "historic", others referred to it as "a line in the sand" which had to be crossed.
But as the meeting between the First Minister, David Trimble, and the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, began upstairs, Bob McCartney, leader of the anti-agreement UK Unionist Party, revealed his gift of foresight. The meeting had been "inevitable".
Journalists waiting in the ornate halls of Stormont Castle bantered about the statue of Lord Edward Carson at the front, which gestures aggressively in the direction of the south, or is it the southwest?
Then the Sinn Fein delegation descended to brave the media scrum, telling of a friendly, constructive meeting at which everyone had been on first-name terms.
Yes, Gerry and David were now on their own, and yes, they were still talking.
"Your ribbon is a disgrace to the republican cause", joked one journalist to a member of the delegation, "it's all crumpled."
"Ah, sure, I won't need it any more. The prisoners are all getting out", he replied, laughing.
The tone was light, and as Gerry Adams descended from his halfhour solo meeting with the Ulster Unionist leader it seemed set to remain so.
He looked relaxed, his jacket drooping over his arm. Not only had they talked, they had both listened, Mr Adams said.
They had been "cast in these positions" of responsibility, and they had to "help each other in the pursuit of peace and justice".
When pressed to gauge Mr Trimble as a man, the Sinn Fein president described him as "clearly a leader". He paused, refining his statement: "A leader of the Ulster Unionist Party."
A short quote from Abraham Lincoln, no doubt aimed at pushing home the poignancy of the occasion, and with a "Sin e" he was gone for a cup of coffee.
An equally-at-ease Mr Trimble also wanted to highlight history when his turn came to face the cameras.
The hero of unionism, Sir James Craig, had met Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins, he reminded the media. He later posed for pictures beside the statue of the former unionist leader in the hallway.
The meeting had been "constructive" and "formal", but no, he had shaken no one's hand.
Perhaps he had been too busy dealing with the "chickens and eggs", which was how he referred to the issue of decommissioning.
As Mr Seamus Mallon gave the concluding comments to the morning's proceedings and asked that there be no further "distractions" to the full implementation of the agreement, the First Minister, flanked by leading members of the Alliance Party, observed his deputy from the balcony.
Yes, Gerry had met David, and what was so striking was the apparent ease of it all. The ice had been broken; all that's needed now is a thaw.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said last night he was delighted that Mr Trimble and Mr Adams had had such a successful meeting. He hoped this was a prelude to further meetings and dialogue and he believed nothing should become a precondition in the process of implementing the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Ahern will meet the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, in Government Buildings this morning to review the workings of the agreement.