Step too far puts history on hold

“TODAY is truly different. I do not think it. I know it.” Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s emphatic, almost defiant, words captured the tone of yesterday’s joint press conference with Tony Blair yesterday in Belfast.

Yes this was different. This time both leaders were determined to supplant the language of failure, of false dawns, the kind of dog days when only hope and hysteria rhymed.

As Mr Blair neatly summarised: “What has been achieved has been remarkable but it is not yet complete.”