DUP leader Ian Paisley was holding firm last night to his commitment to share power with Sinn Féin in May despite the resignation of senior colleague MEP Jim Allister.
Mr Allister quit as a DUP member but not as an MEP because, in "principle", he could not tolerate Sinn Féin in a Northern Ireland government. "My stomach turned at what I saw," he said of the broadcast images of Dr Paisley and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams sitting next to each other at Stormont on Monday.
One party source acknowledged that Mr Allister's move was motivated by principle but, he said the MEP was politically on a "countdown to oblivion".
While South Down Assembly member Jim Wells reportedly voted on Saturday against the decision of the DUP executive to enter government with Sinn Féin in May, senior DUP sources said the leadership believed there would be no other high-level resignations.
Ballymena DUP councillor Sam Gaston also resigned from the party yesterday, following the resignation prior to the Assembly election of fellow councillor and former rugby international David Tweed. DUP sources conceded other casualties at council level were likely.
In the House of Commons yesterday where emergency legislation was being rushed through to allow the restoration of devolution by May 8th rather than on Monday, as originally scheduled, another DUP hardliner, the Rev William McCrea, rounded on the prospective deputy first minister Martin McGuinness.
"I believed last week that Martin McGuinness was a terrorist. I believe he has blood on his hands. I believe that he has been a murderer," he said in an emotional speech. "I have to tell the House I believe that this week because he is still the same person."
Again, however, the party is confident that Mr McCrea will remain within the party fold.
Dr Paisley faced all these party tremors with good humour. Speaking in the same debate, he said yesterday was a "good day" for the House of Commons, a good day for the United Kingdom, and a good day for the "people of Ireland, North and South".
There was a "star of hope" that could lead to a bright future, he added. "But it is only a star of hope and we must remember that. We are not nearly across the river and we have some very hard things to do, and some great sacrifices to be made, in order that this star will not be like many other stars."
Mr Allister cited several reasons for his resignation, including the continued existence of the IRA army council; the IRA holding on to its "ill-gotten gains"; Sinn Féin MP Michelle Gildernew's comment that she would not inform the PSNI if she saw armed dissident republicans; and the absence of remorse or repentance about the suffering inflicted by the IRA.