You can tell a lot about public figures from the way they cope with being interviewed by spoof TV chat show host Ali G. The new Lord Mayor of Belfast, the DUP's Sammy Wilson, was clearly enjoying himself as Ali G quizzed him on burning Northern issues last year.
"So, is you Irish?" Ali G asked Wilson during an interview in his Belfast office. "No, I'm British," replied Wilson. "Oh, so you must be here on holiday then," said Ali G. Wilson could only smile.
Unlike other victims of the shell-suit-wearing, would-be rapper (most notably Nigel Benn), Wilson was more bemused than annoyed and even told a gag against his leader, Ian Paisley. After all, it could have been much worse. Ali G did not bring up the 1996 publication in newspapers of photographs of Wilson and his girlfriend walking naked in a meadow while on holiday. If he had he might have asked the staunch unionist: "Is you guilty of naked sectarianism?"
With the case against the Sunday World and Irish Star newspapers pending one wouldn't imagine Wilson would have found too much to be bemused about there. But no doubt he has been smiling since he was elected Lord Mayor on Thursday night, scuppering Sinn Fein's hope of installing their man, Alex Maskey, in the plush offices at Belfast City Hall.
Although the nude photographs saga embarrassed the traditionally clean-living, puritanical DUP family, it is testament to Wilson's popularity that it was not long before he was welcomed back into the fold.
The DUP's prodigal son performs the kind of role at annual party conferences that Brian Lenihan did for Fianna Fail. "Sammy is the one that gets them jizzed up," said one commentator. More often than not this involves witty digs at Sinn Fein or the SDLP.
Deriding John Hume for "sanitising" Gerry Adams in 1996, Wilson told the DUP faithful that the SDLP leader had turned Adams "from a scoundrel to a superstar".
"Because of these efforts the Gerry Adams Roadshow has got on the road. And now we have Gerry going about like a pop star, Gerry and the Peacemakers." He is outspoken on everything from the GAA - "the sporting wing" of the IRA - to republican paramilitaries. In April 1998 he said: "The only solution for dealing with the IRA is to kill 600 people in one night. Let the United Nations and Bill Clinton make a scene, and it is over for 20 years."
Even the marketing campaign of Heinz baked beans once got him going. In 1993 the makers decided to confine their slogan Beanz Buildz Britz to Britain while using the potentially less contentious Beanz Meanz Heinz in Northern Ireland. Wilson reacted by calling for a boycott of all Heinz products.
IF Northern Ireland was a place with conventional political parties, one Dublin councillor suggested, Sammy Wilson would probably be active in the Labour Party. He was brought up in working-class east Belfast, and studied politics in Methodist College. One of his teachers was David Bleakley of the Northern Ireland Labour Party. He was an economics teacher at Grosvenor High School and graduated from Queen's, where he studied economics and politics. He has said he identified more with the DUP than the Ulster Unionists "because they were less formal, more populist".
After his election to Belfast City Council in 1981 there was a time when he and a broad working-class bloc of councillors took strong stands on economic and social issues. He was elected Lord Mayor once before in 1986 and because he was separated from his wife chose Rhonda Paisley, Ian Paisley's daughter, as his lady mayoress. A DUP colleague said he didn't know who would be Wilson's First Lady this time.
Meanwhile, the Irish News has expressed concern that Wilson will be a Lord Mayor who will emphasise the differences in Northern Ireland society rather than contribute to reconciliation. "It is ironic," the editorial mused, "that Mr Wilson, a staunch opponent of the new Stormont structures, was only elected through the support of pro-agreement councillors from the Ulster Unionist and Progressive Unionist parties."
The UUP MP and Assembly member Ken Maginnis is just one politician who has clashed with Wilson over the years. He was unwilling to be drawn and when asked for his thoughts on the new Lord Mayor of Belfast he just chuckled. "All I will say is that Sammy Wilson, for a politician, has a very good reputation as a school teacher."
One source, who didn't want to be named, described him as the "Peter Pan of the DUP". He is certainly a DUP man with a difference. He is a keen motorcyclist, and while his politics may be Orange his fingers are green. In his spare time he enjoys pottering about his vegetable plot.
"He typifies Ulster Belfast wit," said one admirer. "He is good company to be with. He is bright. Nothing ever seems to be a problem to Sammy. He is a real battler".
His verbal attacks are immensely quotable. Pillorying David Trimble at the first meeting of the Northern Ireland Assembly two years ago, he said he wouldn't call the UUP leader a liar but that if he was Pinocchio "you could poke me with your nose from where you're sitting".
Complaining about Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness (appointed Minister of Education to Wilson's disgust) because he wasn't providing enough detail in his responses, he said: "I would remind the Minister he is in Stormont and not Castlereagh [RUC interrogation centre] . . . He is permitted to answer questions."
Martin McGuinness silenced him by saying he was glad to see Wilson, "this time with his clothes on".
With court proceedings against two newspapers going ahead in October, the new Lord Mayor of Belfast may find it impossible to leave his holiday snaps behind.
