THE Sinn Fein bandwagon rolls on. The SDLP holds its ground. Fringe loyalists on the up. Unionists stay at home. That's a pithy pen picture of politics today in Northern Ireland, but accurate enough nonetheless.
In Belfast and west of the Bann nationalists make gain after gain in the local elections, and a little bit more of the old unionist monolith begins to crumble.
It was their own fault, according to senior unionist politicians - unionist supporters did not match nationalists in electoral commitment.
The overall result won't be known until some time this afternoon but so far the indications are that for the first time the "nightmare" - as the DUP's Mr Nigel Dodds would have it - of unionists losing control of Belfast City Hall appears to be coming true.
It represents a crushing historic and psychological blow to unionism, and yet another victory for nationalism, much of which is attributed to the expertise of the Sinn Fein electoral machine. And it got worse for unionism.
It was losing its majority in Fermanagh, and its majority in Strabane. And to add insult to injury, the SDLP for the first time managed to win two seats in Castlereagh Council, a previously impregnable bastion of east Belfast unionism run by the Robinsons, Peter and Iris.
After a 10 week election campaign for, first, the Westminster election and then Wednesday's local poll, Northern Ireland was understandably becalmed by electoral fatigue. But it was nationalists who shook themselves out of the doldrums.
The contrast in commitment was striking. In one district electoral area of the overwhelmingly unionist council of North Down, only 29 per cent of voters bothered to exercise their franchise. In a nationalist electoral area of Cookstown, where the SDLP and Sinn Fein won most of the votes, the turnout was 83 per cent.
The result confirms the Westminster election message, that four out of every 10 of the electorate are nationalists while five out of every 10 are unionists - Alliance and the smaller parties make up the rest.
It means that while unionists are still in the majority, the overall nationalist representation is now a powerful bloc. And if there is an IRA ceasefire, a combined nationalist alliance of the SDLP and Sinn Fein - and possibly the Irish government - would be quite a formidable force which unionism could not easily dismiss.
What is crucial is how the IRA will interpret the result.
Throughout these two elections Mr Gerry Adams has argued that republicans are in "peace mode". This strengthening of Sinn Fein's electoral position should also strengthen the standing of those within the movement who favour abandoning the Armalite for the ballot box.
Politicians like Mr Ken Maginnnis of the UUP and Mr Dodds of the DUP complained that it was apathy that undermined unionism, and that the result is not a true reflection of unionist strength and belief.
"But that's democracy," was the terse nationalist response.
The election result may also mean further analysis of Hume Adams, and the price the SDLP has paid electorally in sticking with the initiative in good times and bad. While the SDLP vote appears to be holding, the Sinn Fein vote is still increasing, even on John Hume's doorstep of Derry.
Unionism, and particularly the UUP which fared badly in Belfast, also will be holding a postmortem on the results. The unionist family has blamed apathy for its problems, although deeper analysis is required.
When the performance of the UUP is compared with that of the fringe loyalists, perhaps a more important issue for the main unionist party is how to develop a stronger electoral machine. It may even have to consider that its unwillingness to treat with all shades of nationalism has ant agonised would be supporters, who favoured the more dynamic and self confident approach of the fringe parties.
The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), which are respectively linked to the UVF and UDA, did very well.
