Anne Lyttle travelled to Belfast last Tuesday for a BBC Spot- light debate on the peace process. Her party leader, David Trimble, was on the panel and she was hoping to challenge him on remaining in government with Sinn Fein.
She never got the chance. Five minutes into the programme, the building had to be evacuated. There was a "Real IRA" bomb warning.
"That showed republicans' contempt for the peace process. It was yet more evidence of the Belfast Agreement's failure. There will always be an IRA. Those people will never give up until there is a united Ireland. There is no point appeasing them."
She believes the UUP should pull out of government with Sinn Fein immediately. "According to the agreement, decommissioning was to begin on June 26th and be completed by May 2000. The IRA has been given ample opportunity. Now it is time for our party to take action." A petite woman with four grown-up children, Ms Lyttle runs an engineering business with her husband in Garvagh, Co Derry.
She stresses that she has studied the Belfast Agreement in detail. "It's often claimed that the anti-agreement side says `No' out of ignorance. The opposite is the case. Most people in our party who support the agreement haven't even read it. They have simply put their trust in the party leader. They think because he is an academic, they will follow his lead. But where is he leading?"
She was unimpressed with this week's visit to the North by Mr Tony Blair. "Why should we listen to a word he says? He made promises before. He said he wouldn't tolerate any more paramilitary violence. He threatened to halt prisoner releases. He did absolutely nothing." Ms Lyttle thinks that since their ceasefires, the Provisional IRA and the loyalists have become "even more sinister".
The Provisional IRA is widely believed to have been responsible for three murders in recent months, and she points to the dozens of attacks in the loyalist feud.
"None of this violence has been claimed by any paramilitary group. At least during the Troubles you knew your enemy. Now, these organisations stay in the shadows. They hijack cars, they knock on doors, they intimidate, and they kill but they don't publicly admit it. They use guns with no ballistic history.
"The government turns a blind eye. It is prepared to let the Provisional IRA `police' republican areas and the loyalists deal with other loyalists. They call it `good housekeeping'. It is completely unacceptable."
Ms Lyttle believes UUC delegates must apply the brakes to the agreement today. "We don't vote for Bill Clinton. We don't vote for Bertie Ahern . . . But we do vote for David Trimble and it's time to tell him `enough'."