Higgins quoted Kettle as saying: "This tragedy of Europe may be and must be the prologue to the two reconciliations of which all statesmen have dreamed – the reconciliation of Protestant Ulster with Ireland and the reconciliation of Ireland with Great Britain".
The DUP, UUP, Traditional Unionist Voice, the Ulster Volunteer Force-aligned Progressive Unionist party and the Ulster Defence Association-linked Ulster Political Research Group said it showed that "the commission members place no value on a relationship with unionism and have treated our advice with contempt".
The final group under stress thanks to the emergence of this new flashpoint are the loyalists themselves, or to be more specific, the loyalist terrorist groups such as the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Ulster Convenant, when tens of thousands of unionists pledged to oppose the Liberal government's plans for Home Rule for Ireland, many Ulster Protestants even signing it in their own blood.
At 11.30pm Democratic Unionists had 20 seats, Sinn Féin 13, Ulster Unionists 12, SDLP three, Progressive Unionists one, Alliance party one, and Dr Kieran Deeny, an independent campaigning to keep acute hospital services in Omagh, topped the poll in West Tyrone.
Gladstone, like Blair, set out to pacify Ireland and achieved much; but in 1886, he threw over his old allies in liberal, Protestant Ulster, who had fought a long battle against orange and green extremism, in favour of an acceptance of what was perceived to be a more compelling realpolitik.
Spence told Radio Ulster that the UVF had been "engaged in murder, attempted murder of civilians, attempted murder of police officers.
The violent protests over the union flag row have now extended to the East Antrim town, which has long-standing historical links to the Ulster loyalist-Protestant cause.
O'Callaghan is understood to have told a number of sceptics inside the Ulster Unionist Party, including the deputy leader John Taylor, that the IRA was serious about its proposal and that the war was well and truly over.
The DUP once championed the "Save Ulster from Sodomy" campaign in a bitter attempt to prevent the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Mr Adams will sweep home in West Belfast, while Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's education minister, will have little difficulty in Mid Ulster.
