On mid-morning of the day internment was introduced in Northern Ireland, August 9th, 1971, the E-type Jaguar of Desmond Boal was driven up beside me on Royal Avenue in Belfast. Boal indicated to me to get into the car. We drove to a Buster MacShane's gym nearby to meet Ian Paisley.
Desmond Boal was then a member of the old Stormont parliament, as was Ian Paisley. Boal was a dissident member of the Ulster Unionist Party and was personally close to Paisley, although they were very different people.
Boal was not overtly religious, politically he was liberal/left and his lifestyle differed radically from that of Paisley. Boal was then and for many years afterwards a brilliant barrister and was well off. He was also by far the most formidable speaker in that old Stormont parliament. I recall a unionist minister, Harry West, begging Boal to go easy on him.
Internment had been mooted for weeks before the actual introduction, and Boal had promised that if it was introduced he would denounce it as an unacceptable breach of civil liberties. On the way to Buster MacShane's gym that morning he said he would prevail on Ian Paisley to join in his denunciation of internment.
We met Paisley in the cafe attached to the gym. By the way, it was Boal who was a member of the gym, not Paisley. And for over an hour or so Boal persuaded Paisley to condemn internment. Paisley agreed, reluctantly. They issued a joint statement.
Paisley spent over a year trying to get off that hook. Some months later Boal talked Paisley into making favourable noises about a united Ireland, or at least friendly relations with the South. He spent even more time getting off that hook.
These exposed Paisley's "right" flank - vulnerable to being undermined by more extreme unionists. It was and, I suspect, remains his primary preoccupation - being outflanked by others to his right wing. And whenever he perceives that threat, he retreats back into hardline unionism.
And so it is today. Paisley veered towards an accommodation with Sinn Féin but then retreated when he was attacked by more hardline elements within his own party, notably the party's MEP, Jim Allister.
There is no prospect, I believe, that the DUP will agree to a commitment to a devolution of security powers from Westminster to Stormont in May 2008, the essential requirement of Sinn Féin in supporting the PSNI.
There are several explanations for the DUP resistance to engagement with Sinn Féin. Part of it is sectarian. Part is just sheer obduracy. But there is a more substantial reason.
The unionist electorate is just not ready for that accommodation with people whom they perceive to be the killers of their relatives, friends and neighbours.
Yes, 13 years almost have gone by since the IRA campaign effectively stopped. But that is a short time in the memory of a community that felt under siege for so long. Yes, Catholics were murdered by loyalist paramilitaries. But the reality is that the IRA murdered 832 Protestants, of whom 358 were civilians. And in the eyes of a great many unionists the people responsible for these murders were Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. The thought of Martin McGuinness being deputy first minister is, to many unionists, disquieting. That Martin McGuinness would have some hand in the overall command of the security forces: shocking.
Those of us who don't see it that way should acknowledge that a great many unionists do. Many of us admire Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness for the dexterous way they have brought the republican movement, virtually intact, to peace and to an acceptance of the democratic wishes of the people on this island.
But the reality is that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are now liabilities in terms of unionist acceptance of the peace deal. Jim Allister said recently it was a generational thing and maybe he is right.
There is reason to believe that both Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness wish to leave the scene anyway. Neither is interested in position or power in themselves.
Gerry Adams will be 59 next October; Martin McGuinness will be 57 in May. If either or both believed peace would be advanced by their departure from the scene, I believe they would go.
The problem is that their departure might weaken fatally the peace faction within the republican movement.
But, one way or another, it may be that there will be no deal now and not for quite some time. And if then there is a new leadership in Sinn Féin things could be very different.
Although the failure of the present initiative is disappointing, the transformation of the situation is so startling that we have to welcome all that has been achieved so far.
It will all come right in a few years, but probably after Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley are gone from the scene.