Having worn his support for the Belfast Agreement on his sleeve throughout the campaign, the UUP's general secretary, Mr Jim Wilson, said he was delighted to have been elected so resoundingly. "I'm entitled to take the view that they've endorsed my position."
Mr Roy Beggs, the UUP MP for the area, was less exuberant, but still proud of the younger of his two sons, Roy jnr (35), who topped the poll in East Antrim.
With the birth of another senior-junior father-and-son unionist partnership, Mr Beggs snr described his son as "a little more diplomatic than me". Roy jnr is a "soft No" to his father's "hard-as-they-come No".
"He has probably more of his mother's nature than me. He's a much gentler guy than his father," Mr Beggs said, after clasping his son proudly and beaming for the cameras.
The day's counting of the two UUP heartland constituencies of East and South Antrim began in the Glengormley Valley Leisure Centre with little drama. There were wistful sighs when one journalist remarked that the media room had housed a bouncy castle earlier in the week.
In Antrim East, the UUP took two seats, and there was one each for the DUP, SDLP, Alliance and the UK Unionist Party.
In South Antrim, the division of the seats between the parties was identical.
