Future boils down to a Yes or a No at the polling booth

The Yes campaign was conspicuous by its absence in Portadown yesterday. There wasn't a pro-agreement poster to be seen anywhere, and pictures of the local MP, David Trimble, were accompanied by the slogan: "The Union is safe. So was the Titanic."

Outside polling stations in the unionist parts of the town, No campaigners had the footpaths to themselves. Even in nationalist Ballyoran, off the Garvaghy Road, there was no one urging Yes. Three Sinn Fein activists claimed neutrality on the issue as they handed out leaflets: "We're not telling anyone to vote Yes or No, they should use their own initiative."

At the Hart Memorial School in Protestant Edgarstown, there was no such reticence. Mr Trimble was "finished" in Portadown, the No campaigners there agreed, in between pouring scorn on the timidity of the UUP campaign: "You better be looking behind the bushes for them, because you'll not find them here," said one leafletter.

Two No voters, John Wright and Ivor Young, were talking of war. Mr Young, a veteran loyalist with fading tattoos, accepted he wouldn't be part of it when it came. "We're too old for this game. But at the end of the day, young people will pick up guns and fight for this country. My boys will pick up guns."

His friend laughed: "I've all girls. They'll have to go into the hospital corps." A lifetime Ulster Unionist Party voter, Mr Wright said he would never support the party again: "David Trimble has committed political suicide." By contrast, he had a grudging admiration for Gerry Adams. "You've got to hand it to Adams. I'm not joking, and I'm loyal through and through. But Gerry Adams has never gone back on anything he said. He's in there now, and the bomb and bullet is what's got him there."

Mr Young spoke admiringly of the negotiating skills of Bertie Ahern ("I saw him on RTE the other night saying the unionists weren't used to negotiating") and agreed with his friend that Britain could not get out of Northern Ireland quickly enough. But his pet hate was the Belfast city slickers who led loyalism into the agreement.

"The likes of Davy Ervine and Gary McMichael, they think we're just stupid country men. But it's us that'll fight the war. It won't be the city people." A middle-aged woman hailed the two men as she came out of the polling station: "No, no, no. A thousand times no," she shouted. "That's right," replied Ivor.

Over in Ballyoran, however, everybody seemed to be voting Yes, despite the reluctance of Sinn Fein to advise them. Dessie and Lily McCullaugh

emerged from the polling booth carrying their 21-month-old granddaughter, and both had been thinking of the baby when they voted.

"I think we'll have justice now for Catholics, a fair crack of the whip for the first time. And I hope it'll bring more jobs and money into the country," said Lily.

Also voting Yes were Bernard (78) and Kathleen (74) White. They weren't expecting the agreement to revolutionise their lives, however, which are confined largely to the Tricolour-bedecked estates off Garvaghy. Kathleen explained: "We don't go into town much. We're part of the Free State here."

In the oddly-named Scotch Street, a rural area two miles outside Portadown, the mainly Protestant voters seemed to be voting No. One woman cited the prisoners issue: "Justice is justice, ceasefire or no ceasefire. The Nazis who killed the Jews said they were sorry and that they were only acting on orders. But they still hanged them."

At a school in Killycobain estate, near which youngsters are already building a bonfire for the Twelfth of July, the Nos also seemed to be in the ascendant. A woman arriving to vote asked sarcastically: "Why isn't the Tricolour flying here? I thought that was supposed to be our new national flag."

But Woolsea Smith, the Democratic Unionist Party man handing out No leaflets, conceded it was not all one way. He predicted Portadown unionists were running 60-40 against the agreement although, on yesterday's evidence, the 40 were keeping quiet about it. He too had admiration for Gerry Adams: "Whatever you say about him, he tells the truth more than some of our fellows."

According to an eyewitness, Mr Trimble was jostled and heckled by a group of up to 50 people outside the polling station on the Corcrain estate yesterday evening. Many people on the estate would be loyal to the murdered LVF leader and local man Billy Wright. The RUC confirmed Mr Trimble had been heckled in Portadown, but there was no evidence of him having been jostled by the crowd.