The DUP might be enjoying unprecedented success but even victorious election teams aren't beyond improvement. So the Rev Ian Paisley took time out for some head-hunting as he toured Belfast City Hall yesterday to inspect the council results.
"Would you like to join our party?" he boomed at antiagreement Ulster Unionist councillor Jim Rodgers. Mr Rodgers blushed as he explained he already had a party. "But you have no leader," bellowed Dr Paisley. "You could move from the darkness of sin to the restoration of the Gospel."
"Are you trying to force me?" asked Mr Rodgers. "Oh, I only take willing recruits," proclaimed Dr Paisley before reembarking on his inspection. He spotted Nelson McCausland, newly-elected DUP councillor for Oldpark, north Belfast. Gained at the expense of the UUP, it was the DUP's first seat in the ward in 12 years. "Nelson, you've let the light into Oldpark again," said Dr Paisley.
Votes in five of Belfast's nine wards - Upper Falls, Lower Falls, Victoria, Pottinger and Oldpark - were counted yesterday. Laganbank, Balmoral, Court, and Castle will be counted today.
The SDLP was in subdued spirits, still reeling from its Westminster performance. It had hoped to gain a seat from Sinn Fein in west Belfast but it didn't - the balance is still eight-two in Sinn Fein's favour. Still, no one was complaining. The SDLP was just relieved not to have suffered any losses.
None of its representatives would be quoted publicly but the talk was that Mr Hume should step down as leader. "I have the utmost respect for John," said one senior activist, "but he must bow out gracefully."
A younger member was more outspoken. "If he doesn't make way for the next generation, we will be wiped out."
Sinn Fein supporters outnumbered those from the other parties in City Hall by at least three to one.
They seemed at ease despite the poppy wreaths, war memorials and imperial trappings all around them. "The days when there wasn't a Fenian about the place are long gone," said one activist.
Mr Adams perched on a marbled window-ledge to conduct a radio interview.
Later, he sang or hummed to himself as he floated around the building.
Ear-ringed supporters from the Progressive Unionist Party, the UVF's political wing, cracked jokes with the Sinn Feiners. There were no hard feelings when the PUP's Billy Hutchinson, sporting a large Orange lily in his lapel, was elected on the last count in Oldpark, depriving Sinn Fein of a seat it had hoped to pick up. Sinn Fein did gain an extra seat, though, when Pottinger in east Belfast elected its first nationalist councillor. The main interest, however, surrounded the DUP's massive advance. A group of cheering, middle-aged women waving Union flags greeted their party leader.
Dr Paisley reported gains in Ballymena, Craigavon and Banbridge. "The people have spoken," the DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson, said with satisfaction, "and they have said Trimble must go."