Starmer may not give us back Declan Rice, but he pledges plenty on the political front
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It took England just 26 minutes to put Ireland to bed in the sunshine at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening, but in the aftermath of Heimir Hallgrímsson's first outing as Ireland boss, there are some silver linings.
Granted, most of them won't help the Irish fans who watched Lee Carsley's England cut with ease through Ireland's rearguard en route to a Jack Grealish goal, England's second.
But what's three Nations League points when there's a €120bn trading relationship at stake?
By the time the English side had asserted their dominance on the Lansdowne Road turf, there was important work done just a few miles away at Farmleigh as British prime minister Keir Starmer met Taoiseach Simon Harris, the pair's second meeting since the former claimed a massive election win in July.
Indeed, one of his first actions following Labour's landslide win was to pick up the phone to Mr Harris and commit to a bettering of relations between the two neighbours following eight years of a Brexit-shaped rift.
Mr Starmer was as good as his word and quickly invited Mr Harris to England where the pair met at Chequers ahead of the European Political Community meeting the following day.
At that meeting, they raised a glass of Guinness and each pledged to "reset" the relationship.
That commitment has been welcomed on the Irish side, with government sources saying privately that they genuinely believe that the new Labour government is committed to its relationship with Ireland and that Mr Harris will, in turn, be less "antagonistic" towards London than perhaps his recent predecessors.
Central to this reset will be a new yearly leaders' summit to be held in March.
Ministers on both sides will prepare between now and March, with a number headed from Dublin to London this week and will, according to a joint statement "take forward co-operation in four key areas, which illustrate the breadth and depth of shared values and interests between the UK and Ireland".
The summits will focus on security, justice and global issues, climate, energy, technology and innovation, growth, trade and investment and culture, education and people-to-people connections.
While these headings are broad, in Dublin sources say that they are reflections of areas that "went a little bit untended" in recent years as governments in Dublin and London found themselves at odds over Britain's relationship with the EU.
Another area that went untended was the British attitude to the Good Friday Agreement, but Mr Starmer's recognition of his role as a co-guarantor of the document has not gone unnoticed, as small a step as it has been.
Thus far, the impression is that Mr Starmer has said all of the right things and is a good-faith actor interested in a better relationship. His warming relationship with Mr Harris is seen as an important piece of that puzzle.
However, Mr Starmer was not all positive on this trip. He flatly rejected a request for Ireland to have midfielder Declan Rice back.