Anti-agreement unionist MPs vented their fury in the House of Commons last night, as the British government pushed through the enabling legislation for the May 22nd referendum and Assembly elections on June 25th.
And the scale of the Ulster Unionist Party's internal divisions was laid bare as five of Mr David Trimble's MPs sat alongside the Rev Ian Paisley, Mr Peter Robinson and Mr Robert McCartney in trenchant opposition to the Good Friday agreement.
With Mr Trimble on his way to the US, and Mr John Taylor, Mr Ken Maginnis and Mr Cecil Walker all absent, no pro-agreement unionist voice from Northern Ireland was heard as MPs set about passing the election and referendum Bills, and an order bringing the Northern Ireland Forum to an end, in just under nine hours.
Mr McCartney, the UK Unionist Party leader, complained bitterly that "even those who support the agreement should avoid giving the people of Northern Ireland the impression that the legislation is being put forward in an oppressive and coercive manner." But with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats supporting the government, Mr McCartney accepted they would probably be unsuccessful in amending a line of the proposed legislation.
This was promptly confirmed when the government's guillotine motion, enabling the Bill to clear all its stages in one sitting, was passed by 350 votes to 11. After three hours' debate, the Elections Bill received an unopposed Second Reading, before proceeding to Committee Stage.
Mr Robinson, the DUP deputy leader, protested that time taken for divisions would further erode the opportunity for debate. But the Leader of the House, Ms Ann Taylor, echoed Mr Seamus Mallon's complaint that those seeking extra time now had declined the opportunity to take part in the negotiation process over the previous two years.
The dissenting unionists faced into the long night knowing their amendments would be routinely voted down, and unimpressed by Mr Andrew Mackay's insistence for the Conservatives that the opportunity to deal with issues of concern - like prisoner releases, the RUC's future, and the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons - would come later in the year with the major Bill providing for the transfer of powers to the new Assembly.
But there was clear delight in the anti-agreement camp as they joined forces on the opposition bench, in the absence of Mr Trimble and the three other MPs who have declared their support for the agreement. They would have numbered nine, had Mr Jeffrey Donaldson not had to return to the North for a meeting with his constituency party. And the demeanour of the Rev Martin Smyth, Mr Roy Beggs, Mr Clifford Forsythe, Mr William Ross and Mr William Thompson was enough to dispel any lingering leadership hopes that they would not carry their fight against the pro-agreement decisions of the party executive and the Ulster Unionist Council.
Mr Ross said the people of Northern Ireland would "reap the misery" wrought by the agreement. And Mr Tony Blair's letter of assurance to Mr Trimble on decommissioning "doesn't mean as much as a puff of smoke".
Mr Thompson said those "who have murdered the people of Northern Ireland are going to get into an Assembly, into an executive and from there further their aim of a united Ireland."
While he would be allowed to remain within the UK because that was his wish, Mr Thompson said this was "a poor Union" with unionists treated like "a scorned wife" to be "got rid of as quickly as possible."
Several anti-agreement Ulster Unionist MPs have not ruled out standing for election to the Assembly, reinforcing the sense that it is the June contest which will provide the acid test for the UUP leader and the workability of the new institutions.