Men of Destiny, the stories of ordinary Christians who shaped their countries' future, sits on the bookshelf of George Shiels's farmhouse in Maghera, Co Derry.

Mr Shiels believes the 858 men and women of the Ulster Unionist Council can do the same in Northern Ireland. They aren't famous or glamorous. They lead unremarkable lives. Many are from rural areas.

But Mr Shiels hopes their voices can make themselves heard by overthrowing the Mitchell deal. "David Trimble wouldn't know me if he passed me on the street," he says.

"I only know him from the television. I'm the chairman of the party's South Londonderry division, but he has no time for people like me. He is on better terms with Sinn Fein leaders than with unionist grassroots.

"They said when Jim Molyneaux was leader he had no charisma, but he always had a word for you after a meeting. He knew your name. Trimble thinks we are lepers, us mortals in the sticks.

"He thinks he can fool us with his fancy words and formulas - but we call a black crow black. There are enough of us out here to stop him." Mr Shiels doesn't think this disloyal. "David Trimble might be leader of the Unionist Party but he is not a unionist."

Mr Sheils is a well-known local storyteller. He writes poetry "both sad and humorous". He lives with his retired mother, Elizabeth. Their farmhouse is plain but cosy and a fire blazes in the grate.

The family have farmed this land for 300 years. A picture of his great-grandfather, hangs on one wall. On another is a photograph of his brother David as a child.

"They shot him just there," Mr Shiels says, pointing a few yards outside. "He was only 30. He was living in a mobile home while he built a bungalow beside us." Next Friday will be the ninth anniversary of the killing.

"It was dark and David had gone to feed the dog. My mother was in our house. His wife was in the mobile home with their four-week son. She ran out screaming when she heard the shots. He was riddled with bullets. The IRA said they mistook him for a member of the security forces. You make a mistake baking a cake, not taking somebody's life."

The killers were never caught, but he says it would not have mattered anyway. "They would have been released now under this agreement." An oak has been planted where David Shiels died.

On retiring, May Steele and her husband, Sam, decided to devote the rest of their lives to the UUP. Sam had been a party member for over 50 years, May for over 30. "Sam is dead now, so I do it all myself," she says.

She lives in a neat bungalow in Islandmagee on the Antrim coast. The house looks out on Brown's Bay beach, where she walks her fox terrier, Mac, every day. She narrowly missed being elected to the Assembly and works at the UUP offices in Stormont. She will be voting Yes today.

"I love working at Stormont. It's such a beautiful building - the perfect setting for a parliament. It should motivate us all to work things out. I trust David Trimble to have got the best deal possible. He is honest, articulate and a great master of detail.

"Of course I resent Sinn Fein. They perpetrated most of the violence in Northern Ireland, but everybody should have the chance to prove they have changed."

Although she is supporting the Mitchell deal, she understands the feelings of those opposed. "Sam and I were on the right of the party, not the liberal wing. We were against Terence O'Neill and Brian Faulkner. I was in the Vanguard Movement with David Trimble.

"It is not a case of mellowing with age. But situations change. There comes a time when things must be done differently."

Gavin Adams (29), does not fit the image of the stereotypical opponent of the Mitchell deal. Dressed in a baggy shirt and canvas trousers, he is a far cry from the image of the buttoned-up, soberly-suited unionist.

He chats about holidays in Tenerife with his friends and trips to Dublin for "the rugby and Temple Bar". He has a reputation for being "a bit of a lad". "I enjoy a good time," he says. A politics and economics graduate of Queen's University, Belfast, he works for a funding agency.

He has many Catholic friends and voted for the Belfast Agreement. He recognises Sinn Fein's electoral mandate, but will still vote No today. "I support the party leadership but I think its judgment is impaired. This deal will not deliver on IRA arms.

"In January, there will probably be a single token act of decommissioning, nothing more. We cannot allow private armies in government. If something is wrong, it's wrong. Unionists shouldn't be frightened of saying No."

Raymond Ferguson was promoting policies of inclusiveness and toleration long before they were officially acceptable in the UUP. A Fermanagh councillor and local solicitor, he comes from a strong tradition of liberal unionism.

His father, a unionist MP, supported Terence O'Neill. Ferguson lives in Enniskillen with his partner, the artist Margerie Leonard. He played rugby for Ulster and the saxophone in Queen's University jazz band. He is not the type of unionist who goes down well in Upper Bann.

HE fully supports the Mitchell deal and believes David Trimble has correctly accepted Sinn Fein's bona fides.

"Personally, I regret we ever got caught on the decommissioning hook.

"If the IRA drove to every police station in Northern Ireland with a wagon-load of guns there would still be unionists who would want more. And the IRA could always rearm anyway. We have to accept that in life there are no absolute guarantees."

Anne Lyttle doesn't believe in taking chances. A petite woman with four grownup children, she runs an engineering business with her husband in Garvagh, Co Derry. She has a science degree from Queen's and is secretary of the UUP's Coleraine division.

"I am a child of wartime. We had loyalty to king and country then and a gut feeling of right and wrong. We obeyed the ten commandments. I was taught the three Rs and good old-fashioned values that I have stood me in good stead throughout life.

"I am not rejecting this deal out of ignorance. I've always had an agile mind. Carrying out research projects at university, I learnt the importance of precision. You couldn't say it's nearly 3.30 p.m.

"It was either 3.30 p.m. or it wasn't. There was no room for mistakes. The Belfast Agreement and the Mitchell deal are too ambiguous about decommissioning and the cross-Border bodies."

She says Sinn Fein can't be trusted.

"Sinn Fein says there is a good IRA - their IRA - and a bad IRA - the dissident IRA. If there is a bomb they will say `it's not our IRA, it's the other one'. Sinn Fein should be nowhere near government."