Sinn Fein Minister hangs looser than flags

Martin McGuinness was standing in front of his departmental headquarters in Bangor, telling reporters how the further development of the peace process would be a "huge challenge" for everyone.

"You're a scumbag, McGuinness," shouted a woman from the other side of the fence, underlining in her own way the Minister of Education's point. Mr McGuinness remained calm, however, as Sinn Fein constantly advises. Bangor is not a strong republican area, to put it mildly, and the locals weren't expected to throw him a party.

He already had evidence of their feelings. Arriving for work in an old Ford Granada he found the lamp-posts around Rathgael House bedecked with union flags, Ulster flags and the purple standards of the UVF. Flags are commonplace in the North, but these were new or at least freshly laundered. There wasn't much wind yesterday, but they were so well starched they nearly stood up by themselves.

The Minister took this in his stride, too. He recalled a time when the RUC and British army presence at IRA funerals had caused great upset to the relatives. Gradually, the families came to realise that the military presence was a tribute to the deceased. That's how he felt about the flags - he would take them as a "compliment".

Sinn Fein was taking everything as a compliment yesterday. Earlier, in Stormont, Mr McGuinness heard his party president, Gerry Adams, accept more backhanded praise from unionists.

On the one hand, he suggested David Trimble should apologise for the canine analogy in which he suggested republicans were not "housetrained". On the other hand, he took the remark as "an admission from Mr Trimble that Sinn Fein does not roll over at the behest of unionism".

Then, before you could say "Down, boy!", Mr McGuinness showed that if there was patronising to be done, Sinn Fein could give as good it got. He had "a beautiful grandson", he announced, who'd been attempting to walk for the past two months, and faltering. But last Saturday, the day of the Ulster Unionist Council meeting, the child finally "let go of the furniture".

Lest anyone was missing the moral of the story, Mr McGuinness continued: "He's moving forward to embrace a new future for himself, and that's what unionists need to do. They need to let go. They need to lighten up, and to move forward and be decisive about the future."