Loyalist figures were informed on Friday that an IRA ceasefire was impending and warned to take precautions in case republicans carried out last-minute attacks on any of their members. Loyalist paramilitary sources said yesterday that, while sceptical about the IRA's long-term intentions, they were optimistic in the short term that the ceasefire would allow political dialogue to begin.
The main preoccupation of the loyalists is how their political representatives, who have emerged as a small though important element in unionist politics, will fare in the coming talks.
The IRA ceasefire was given a guarded welcome by Mr David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), the political group associated with the UVF.
"I think the people will welcome the ceasefire on the loyalist side. I think the difficulty has been created by the [British] government in some respects in terms of the aides memoire and constant clarifications," Mr Ervine said.
"It has almost been eked out of the government that they have done these things rather than tell us before they were going to clarify for Sinn Fein. That has created a bit of an atmosphere that suggests that the government is being led by the nose by Sinn Fein. That is a bad perception.
"I don't hold totally to that. I think what the government have done is greased the runway for Sinn Fein's entry to negotiations. But in those negotiations, the participants will be the controlling factor. And, when I say the participants, I mean all other people in the room and I think Sinn Fein and the IRA are in for a shock."
He said the loyalist paramilitaries had been "treading water, marking time if you like, in the hope that there could be an opportunity to move towards a democratic path. One would hope that this announcement of an IRA ceasefire at least gives us the opportunity for the absence of violence within which politics becomes possible."
He did not know how the breakaway loyalists, particularly the group calling itself the Loyalist Volunteer Force, which carried three sectarian killings in the midUlster area, would react. "I am afraid there are some people in this society who are unrepresentable and I frankly don't know what they may do. But if the three killings they have been responsible for in the past year are anything to go by, I think we need to be careful about them."
Asked if he would sit with Sinn Fein in talks at Stormont, Mr Ervine said: "In the first instance that is not a requirement. It is obvious in the aide memoire they are entitled to be in the building but they are not, at this moment, entitled to be in negotiations."
It was a possibility, however, that the loyalist parties would be talking to Sinn Fein on September 15th: "It is a possibility and we hope that is the case. We genuinely hope there can be an inclusive process, one that sees the IRA and Sinn Fein over the next few weeks beginning the process of explaining to the unionist populace that they are real about the future."