Stormont: Is charm offensive a pivot or point-scoring?

Question one: If you've been waiting four years for a hip replacement do you care that Michelle O'Neill stood for the national anthem at Windsor Park?

Question two: If you're a junior doctor, a nurse, a teacher or a bus driver waiting for a long overdue pay rise do you care that Emma Little-Pengelly looks like she can handle a hurl and a sliotar better than her Sinn Féin counterpart?

Question three: If you're a principal from whatever sector who can't pay their school oil bill, do you care that Paul Givan spoke a few words of Irish before a céili dance at a school in Dungannon?

Confession time: When I first heard the DUP education minister was going to Gaelscoil Aodha Rua I wondered if we were being played.

My thought bubble went something like this: "Do we really need more pictures of a minister stepping beyond their comfortable place so we can allay the suspicions of an understandably sceptical public?"

That was before I watched with my own eyes as he and the school principal Mona Uí Dhochartaigh engaged in a mutual charm-off which she marginally won by telling him "you'll be good at this bit - march."

It was funny and non-threatening and he laughed as much as everyone else.

This after all was the man who as communities minister axed a £50,000 Irish language bursary scheme called Líofa two days before Christmas with the sign off "happy Christmas and happy new year".

He later reversed the decision but the damage was done. Martin McGuiness said it helped bring down the executive. Gerry Adams called Mr Givan an "ignoramus".

Asked about it on Wednesday, Paul Givan said: "That was in the past. This is today."

I asked an Irish-speaking friend what he thought of events in Dungannon and he said: "It was an important message he sent out today. I'm naively hopeful that they might actually achieve things working together in this assembly."

And that sentiment nicely sums up the optimism tinged by realism that many probably feel about the first month of devolution 2024-style.

It's been notably devoid of petty point-scoring between the two big parties and possibly suggestive of a change of direction signalled by DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Though a well-placed party source said some MLAs on the DUP benches "still want to stick it to them". Them being Sinn Féin.

The TUV leader Jim Allister has now given the DUP an Irish name - "DUP Núa" or New DUP, claiming the party is "in full surrender mode".

"Whatever it takes, obeisance to Irish culture, Irish language, Irish education, DUP Núa will dance to any Sinn Féin tune," he told an anti-protocol rally in Ballyclare.

But to go back to the questions I asked at the beginning, answers may well range from "no" to "yes, but".

Hands across the divide photo-ops can only carry you so far. The former DUP First Minister Arlene Foster stood for the Irish national anthem Amhrán na bhFiann across the border in Clones.

More difficult for Emma Little-Pengelly - or another DUP minister - to do it in Casement Park or Armagh.

But for now even with as healthy a dose of scepticism as you can muster things do appear to be going well.

The alternative is the other kind of photo-ops the parties have specialised in - angry press conferences in the great hall followed by recriminations, recall petitions and a form of direct rule so light-touch it is almost invisible.

Before they engaged in a bit of camaraderie and camogie at St Paul's GAA club in Belfast, First Minister Michelle O'Neill strongly denied she and Emma Little-Pengelly are engaged in "gesture politics" for the sake of it.

"Leadership means leading from the front and that means that you also step outside your own comfort zone, I think that's crucially important," said Ms O'Neill.

Mrs Little-Pengelly added: "I think it's a great thing to get out there, have some new experiences and learn from each other and that is the way forward."

In 2018, the commentator Alex Kane wrote he had no time for "gesture politics" because it was "more to do with a political calculation rather than sincerity; more to do with winning brownie points from the media and outside observers rather than earning the respect of your opponents; and usually, particularly with our torturous peace process in Northern Ireland, often just another choreographed, over-rehearsed step in the run-up to another round of negotiations."

I asked him if he had changed his mind in light of recent events. He replied: "I wouldn't change a word of it."

I then asked a Stormont insider if it was as rosy behind the scenes as it is in public and was told: "It is and I would tell you if it wasn't. Michelle and Emma appear very comfortable together and respectful of each other.

"Now that may be because they haven't had a difficult decision to make. There is common ground. For example, they both believe the UK government needs to do more.

"And while they take different lines on Casement [Park] I think there's a real effort to make it work."

It reminds others of when the executive returned in January 2020 after the Sinn Féin boycott when there was a real effort to make things work - especially during the Covid pandemic.

And then came the funeral of Bobby Storey and the flouting of the regulations by, among others, several prominent Sinn Féin figures.

And that's the problem with Stormont. Bear traps can catch out the parties at any time and one will surely come along soon.

Until then expect to see more shots of ministers in uncomfortable spaces, be they portacabins in Dungannon or sports grounds in Belfast.