Ulster loyalists delivered more than 200,000 newspapers today as part of a new campaign urging resistance against a supposed slide towards a united Ireland.
Victims of IRA violence fronted the attempt to rally mass Protestant support, with headlines and posters declaring: "Ulster At Crisis Point".
Senior loyalist paramilitaries were also at Larne Harbour, Co Antrim, where the cargo of free newspapers was brought in by boat in a symbolic recreation of a weapons delivery to the old Ulster Volunteer Force on the Clyde Valley ship in 1914.
Organisers pledged to deliver papers right across Northern Ireland free of charge as part of what they have labelled the Love Ulster Campaign. The newspaper was put together by the Shankill Mirror, a community organisation based in a West Belfast protestant stronghold.
A website has also been set up carrying regular news and campaign updates.
Campaign organisers, who have also gained the support of Orange Order leaders, insisted this was an alternative to violent protest.
William Wilkinson, of the South Armagh-based group for Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR), said they would struggle against a security scale-down and disbandment of Royal Irish Regiment units through entirely peaceful methods.
He said: "The pen is mightier than the sword and we hope this will provide an alternative to a lot of frustration and deep hurt being felt."
John MacVicar, a board member of the media organisation, claimed they had simply answered the call of anxious loyalists across the province and were waiting for future instructions about where the project should go next.
PA