I knew what I had to do as party leader had to be sensible and relate to the real situation we were in, rather than a situation you would like to have.

We had a completely deniable exchange of papers - in the winter before the 1997 election - with [Tony] Blair, setting out what we thought were the realistic parameters for a solution: and we were getting reasonable responses back from him. That's what led to Blair's visit to Belfast on May 16, 1997 - two weeks after he became Prime Minister and his first official visit outside London.

We had the IRA ceasefire in August 1994 and a lot of people assumed that a deal had been done - which wasn't right.

I had read an early profile of [Tony] Blair by Frank Millar in which he said that Blair was very keen on the 'consent principle'.

The dark shadow we seem to see in the distance is not really a mountain ahead, but the shadow of the mountain behind - a shadow from the past thrown forward into our future. It is a dark sludge of historical sectarianism. We can leave it behind us if we wish.

It wasn't too difficult to see that [Ian] Paisley would never do anything positive.

As we take stock of this century of achievement, Ulster Unionists have every reason to feel proud.