SOME pictures take your breath away. A newborn child, a stunning view, an animal in full flight...

Today's picture of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness sitting beside one another, laughing, clearly quite happy - quite relaxed - in each other's company, is another.

They were implacable enemies, figureheads of an intractable conflict that went back centuries.

To see them so happily together, as they start a new life working together, gives great hope. If this can be resolved, anything can be resolved.

Great credit, then, to Tony Blair. Previous Prime Ministers had only become interested in the Irish Question when it had exploded on to their agenda; Mr Blair was genuinely interested in resolving it - in building on the work started by his predecessor John Major - from day one. On one occasion, he even personally, physically blocked the door to prevent unionists from walking out of the negotiating room and the talks collapsing. He has also taken very difficult decisions - talking to terrorists, early release of prisoners, Bloody Sunday inquiry - that at the time won him only criticism but now in the broad sweep of history appear to be sensible steps.

If this alone is Mr Blair's legacy, it is not a bad one.

There are plenty of others who deserve credit. A pair of North-East politicians - Peter Mandelson and the late Mo Mowlam; a pair of international leaders - Bertie Aherne and Bill Clinton - and a pair of Irish politicans - Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness - who have made remarkable personal journeys.

This does not mean the future is sorted. There will, undoubtedly, be rocky moments. But they need to be put into context. Just nine years ago, opponents to the Good Friday Agreement detonated a bomb in Omagh which killed 29 people (and two unborn) - that's in our country! Just six years ago, children going to school in Belfast found themselves caught up in the most appalling scenes just because of their religion - in our own country!

It has taken nearly 40 years and about 3,500 lives to reach the point of a power-sharing assembly. How refreshing it was yesterday to see demonstrators outside Stormont protesting not about religion, not about sectarianism, but about the war in Iraq.

Welcome, Northern Ireland, to the real world.