"Unionists are increasingly critical of the terms of the Union and more and more are convinced that the British want rid of them .. The last 25 years may have seen unionism losing its ties to Britain but it has also solidified the unionist sense of identity, hostility to things Irish and hostility to Catholics. The significant change is not among the hard-liners: Mr. Paisley stands pretty much where he always was."

The violence of the past 25 years has traumatised the Protestant working class but there has also been considerable re-evaluation. While the union was under violent attack, it felt it had little alternative but to vote for the same unionist dinosaurs. But it did so, not because it believed its politicians to have its interests at heart, but because they were committed to the union - it was a vote for self-preservation .

The sense of betrayal is a result of the fervent belief and 'divine' right to be British, coupled with the above and beyond the call of duty sacrifices made on the altar of Empire. During the Blitz of Belfast over Easter 1941, over 1 100 died, 900 on Easter Tuesday alone - the greatest loss during a single raid outside London. Over half the houses in the city were damaged. One official stated over 220 000 had evacuated by May 1941. The city had been neither physically nor psychologically prepared for an aerial onslaught.

If loyalty is understood as continued allegiance to the union, this scarcely signals a devout attachment to what 'union' originally meant - a parliamentary union aimed at replacing subordinate parliaments. Mr Paisley's loyalties before 1972 clearly encompassed a devolved parliament. This attachment, in reality, involves a commitment to Northern Ireland as a colonial dependency. The question then becomes whether executive power within this dependent jurisdiction is to be exercised on a democratic mandate - not necessarily fulfilled by institutionalised consociational power-sharing arrangements - or some other principle to which all parties to negotiation can assent.

The history of riots and civil commotion in the North of Ireland, and especially in Belfast, proves .. that so long as the Protestant Unionists think they have the right to dominate and insult the Catholics there can never be lasting peace. Nor can there be true democracy while the Orange Order and the Unionist Party are organisationally integrated, as they have been since 1886.

Captain Terrence O’Neill ... will soon have to make up his mind whether he intends to appease the republican minority or serve the vast so-called extremist majority. Surely he does not seriously think that appeasement will stop the IRA attacks or the cries of discrimination. Or is he secretly selling us to the South?