"The summer is not lost" was the key phrase from Leo Varadkar's address to the nation last June. He was signalling the way out of the first ever lockdown at a time when the country tentatively dappled in the notion of hope that we soon learned mixed very badly with the coronavirus pandemic.
It was an identical theme that his successor Micheál Martin adopted tonight as he took to the same podium of Government Buildings.
His announcement of a cagey easing of restrictions was almost drowned out by his overall message of hope - his biggest offering of optimism yet.
While the easing of restrictions is extremely modest in the short term, the prospect of more medium-term freedoms was dangled in front of a tired nation in the hope of persuading it