Nothing illegal was proven but Ian Paisley jnr had to go, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor.
There was no single knockout punch, just a constant pummelling over five months, that compelled Ian Paisley junior to throw in the towel and resign as junior minister with the Executive.
That resignation seems bound to hasten the day when his father, the Rev Ian Paisley, bows out of the ring as First Minister and hands over to, most likely, Peter Robinson - although Nigel Dodds may also be a contender.
But that's for another day. The spotlight yesterday was on Ian Paisley jnr, as it has been for the past five months now, and on his property dealings and lobbying on behalf of a north Antrim businessman. Brendan Behan said there was no such thing as bad publicity but Ian junior would challenge that view.
His problem was that he could not keep out of the local papers, while on BBC Northern Ireland and UTV he far too regularly featured on the main news pieces - but for all the wrong reasons.
The controversy goes back to Mr Paisley jnr's relationship with successful businessman Seymour Sweeney who was attempting to build a new multimillion pound visitor centre on land he owns at the Giant's Causeway, and how Mr Paisley initially characterised that friendship.
In September Mr Paisley defended his support for Mr Sweeney in his Giant's Causeway ambitions.
Asked at the time on BBC Radio Ulster what was his relationship to Mr Sweeney he said, "I know of him".
It quickly emerged, however, that Mr Sweeney enjoyed a particular bond with Mr Paisley jnr and Dr Paisley as well, that they had lobbied on his behalf, and that he was a member of the DUP.
And as time went on more details emerged. There were no allegations that there was anything illegal about that relationship, just lots of questions and a drip, drip of information that was damaging Mr Paisley and, as far as the DUP hierarchy was concerned, was damaging the party as well.
At that time DUP Environment Minister Arlene Foster said she was "of a mind" to grant planning permission to Mr Sweeney for the Giant's Causeway development but late last month she was of a different mind and Mr Sweeney was not to get his permission.
It also emerged in September that Mr Paisley bought a house from Mr Sweeney in Bushmills, Co Antrim. Both men said that the full market value of the house was paid.
It emerged as well that the property was registered in the name of Mr Sweeney's wife but Mr Paisley dismissed this as an "administrative hiccough".
Then in December concerns were raised about an attempt by Mr Paisley to discuss a £50 million land deal in Ballee near Ballymena - involving Mr Sweeney and others - with the SDLP social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie.
Last month Traditional Unionist Voice MEP Jim Allister, formerly of the DUP, caused more unease through a freedom of information trawl of what Mr Paisley was doing on the margins of the St Andrews talks in October 2006. He discovered that Mr Paisley had raised a number of local issues with the then British prime minister Tony Blair, including the Ballee land deal and the Giant's Causeway visitor centre.
It was the first the vast bulk of the party heard of it, we learned from the DUP. Mr Paisley, bullish as ever, said he had no apologies to make for working for his constituents.
Earlier this month the Northern public learned that Mr Paisley was earning a researcher's wage for working for his father at Westminster, while also earning £63,000 as an MLA and junior Minister.
In Dromore last week the Traditional Unionist Voice inflicted enough damage to ensure that the DUP, which previously had 50 per cent of the vote, lost a council byelection to the Ulster Unionists. Some of the blame for that was laid at the door of Mr Paisley junior because of all the bad publicity.
Over the weekend more concerns were raised when it emerged that Mr Paisley and Dr Paisley rented their constituency office in Ballymena from a firm that used to involve Mr Sweeney, paying seven months rent of £42,000 - which comes out of the public purse. This raised a lot of eyebrows considering that the next highest MLA rental of £20,000 was claimed by DUP Minister Nigel Dodds, who runs two offices. Mr Paisley explained the price by saying he signed the rental deal at the height of the property boom.
The issue was complicated further with a report in yesterday's Belfast News Letter that the sole director of the company which receives the rent is Mr Paisley's father-in-law Jim Curry. Mr Paisley told the paper that he and his father were not breaching any laws and that Mr Curry "gets not a penny piece".
It was just all too much. This was political death by a thousand cuts. Nothing illegal, alleged or proven, but damage by attrition, which was affecting the DUP as well as Mr Paisley. He had to go.