Everybody else was glum but the DUP couldn't hide its glee at Stormont yesterday, writes Suzanne Breen, Senior Northern Correspondent
It all started in a corridor at Stormont with the alleged photo-copying of confidential documents and it was the beginning of the end in another corridor there yesterday when the DUP announced its withdrawal from government.
It was the biggest "success" for anti-agreement unionism since the signing of the Belfast Agreement four years ago and the Rev Ian Paisley's Assembly team were keen to prolong the moment.
They marched into the press conference in single file, big smiles all over their faces.
The assembled press, whom the party has long accused of a pro-agreement bias, looked glum. "Cheer up!" snapped DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson. Reporters, photographers and camera crews crammed into the room and Strangford MP, Iris Robinson, had to climb on top of a desk to secure a view of proceedings.
"Good morning," boomed a beaming Dr Paisley. He sported a tie of hearts emblazoned with Union Jacks that he keeps for special occasions. Seated beneath an oil painting showing storm clouds gathering over Stormont, he made his ominous announcement.
The DUP's two ministers, Nigel Dodds and Peter Robinson, would be clearing their desks by noon on Friday. The latest developments about spying at Stormont confirmed his party's long-held view - "IRA/ Sinn Féin is not and never was committed to peaceful, democratic and non-violent means".
The DUP had got it right and David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party had been wrong all along, he said.
Dr Paisley called for fresh Assembly elections immediately. "We have heard from the politicians. Now let the people have their say." If the British government refused to hold elections because it knew the DUP would perform well, that was "the trait of a fascist", Mr Robinson warned.
Downstairs, the last major debate the current Assembly will probably hold began when the Ulster Unionist Environment Minister, Mr Dermott Nesbitt, said his party had sincerely wanted the agreement to work but had been "let down big-time".
"More like taken in big-time," declared Ian Paisley jnr.
"You cannot participate in government and at the same time be linked with paramilitarism," stressed Mr Nesbitt. "You put Sinn Féin/IRA there," shouted Mr Paisley jnr.
The mild-mannered Mr Nesbitt said he was glad Sinn Féin members were present for the debate because he wanted to make his speech, "looking them straight in the eye".
UK Unionist leader Bob McCartney said Mr Nesbitt spoke with "all the rage of a toothless sheep" and offered only a "desperate gum-bite" in the current crisis.
Last month, Sinn Féin condemned dissident republican threats against the Police Service of Northern Ireland and spoke positively of the Chief Constable, Hugh Orde but a U-turn has followed last Friday's raids.
Assembly member Mary Nelis compared the PSNI to the old RUC. It had arrived at nationalist homes with sledgehammers, guns and batons, she said. "What weapons does the IRA use?" asked Mr Robinson.
Ms Nelis said that,in connection with the raids, nobody had been convicted of anything. "Yet!" shouted Mr Robinson. There were chuckles when she compared the North's current political situation to the coup d'etat which toppled President Salvador Allende in Chile.
But pro- and anti-agreement unionists were united in laughter when she referred to unionists' history of obtaining confidential Northern Ireland Office documents.
One councillor, Chris McGimpsey, had once disclosed information from "an impeccable NIE [Northern Ireland Electricity\] source", she said, evidently meaning NIO.
"What did he reveal, his electricity bill?" someone shouted from unionist ranks.