Remembering the dead of the first World War is an an integral part of the identity of Protestants in Northern Ireland, so it goes without saying that the Democratic Unionist Party leader, Dr Ian Paisley, attends commemorations of the Battle of the Somme.
Dr Paisley was cordial to Minister for Education Mary Hanafin and Ambassador Anne Anderson, telling Ms Hanafin he was delighted when she gave him a copy of the Government's commemorative booklet, with her handwritten dedication, partly in Irish.
But in an interview with The Irish Times, Dr Paisley expressed distrust of what he calls "the Dublin Government", pessimism about the possibility of achieving a new Northern Ireland Executive by the November 24th deadline, and "utter contempt" for fallback plans for joint Irish and British administration of the North.
Would he like to be first minister of the hypothetical Executive? "I'd like to be the first minister, and minister of agriculture as well."
Asked whether there will be a new Executive before the deadline, he said: "No. I don't think so. Except of course if the IRA repents of its evil deeds."
Reminded that the IRA had decommissioned, he said: "And after they were disarmed, 10,000 bullets were found. You don't bluff Ulster people. You're not facing the threat of the IRA in the Irish Republic. We are. And we are not entering into any government with the IRA until the IRA ceases to be a terrorist organisation, gives up its criminal activities, gives up its refusal to acknowledge the authority of the police force or the authority of the courts in Northern Ireland."
In talks at the end of last week, Dr Paisley continued, the IRA "made it very clear that they will not do that. So that's their decision. And if they want to opt out of the system, let them opt out of the system."
His critics point out that joint Irish and British administration of the North could be more "green" than what is now on offer.
"Don't threaten us with that," Dr Paisley said angrily. "The Ulster people will meet that threat when it comes. And I don't think the British government have the stomach for any such thing. And I would like to see the secretary of state [for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain] stay in the government in Westminster saying that.
"Do you think you are going to cod the people of Northern Ireland with that . . ?" Dr Paisley paused, making a hissing, spitting noise. "That's all it is," he said of the plan for Irish-British administration. "I treat it with utter contempt. It is contemptuous to say to a politician and a country: 'You're going to have a different type of rule and it's going to be detrimental to you.'
"Well, we're still part of the United Kingdom and I have never had any discussion with the sovereign government about strand one affairs. Strand one has to do with the government of Northern Ireland, in which the government of Southern Ireland has no say whatsoever." Dr Paisley said the Irish Government "is a threat when they are prepared to condone and to conceal what is happening with the IRA".
"They always are," he added.