However, in the wake of the mass slaughter in the US, and the arrest of three IRA suspects in Colombia, the atmosphere in Belfast is difficult to gauge.
You could imagine the chilly atmosphere at the breakfast table, the prime minister is said to have remarked to friends afterwards.
Above all, in Baghdad there was a pervasive air of deskbound caution, buck-passing, and ass-covering, in contrast with the Wild West atmosphere that broke out, for better and for worse, in Saigon in April of 1975.
Catherine West, who beat Lynne Featherstone in the Red Wedding of the Lib Dem's election, creates a completely different atmosphere, but it's also one of infinite possibility.
These eddies of trouble, the revival of secondary disputes and the mixture of economic policy with diplomatic grievances and popular rhetoric all echo the atmosphere of the early 1930s.
Despite the absence of away fans the atmosphere was not helped by a security operation that, according to eyewitnesses, was woefully inadequate.
All who were there have commented on the supercharged atmosphere among a crowd whipped into a frenzy by the nationalism stirred up by their first clash with Albania in Belgrade since 1967.
The hour added something otherworldly to the atmosphere.
If you accept that adding 30 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere every year is a bad thing, then you have to accept that someone should do something about it.
A proposed experiment to test a way to deliver particles into the upper atmosphere using a balloon and a one kilometre-long pipe was cancelled in 2012 after it was reported that two of the scientists involved had submitted patent applications that were similar to the techniques being proposed.
Players who have left Inverness, almost to a man, speak in glowing terms about the atmosphere at the club.
