Trimble is serenaded by Shankill shoppers

On the hustings: Clutching her plastic shopping bag, 71-year-old Margaret Beattie was lying in wait for David Trimble when he visited the Shankill Road yesterday.

When the Ulster Unionist leader emerged from a building to shake hands and make small talk with constituents, she strode purposefully over to the throng of politicians, media and security officials.

"You're a puppet for the IRA!" she screamed, her face red with anger and the decibel level of her voice increasing with each shriek. "Ulster's not for sale. You told us lies. Traitor!"

Mr Trimble initially tried to ignore it, scanning the footpaths for other locals to meet and greet. Party handlers looked the other way as the tirade continued. The photographers and camera crews, however, lapped it up.

Mrs Beattie wasn't finished, though. As the throng moved forwards, she followed, always staying within roaring distance of the Ulster Unionist leader.

By the time she teamed up with some more local women, Jacqueline Campbell (47) and Catherine McCartney (48), all DUP voters, they started to clap and burst into song on the side of the street.

"What shall we do with the traitor, Trimble?

"What shall we do with the traitor, Trimble,

"Ear-lye in the morning?"

In what's been an underwhelm- ing Assembly election campaign so far, the incident helps to high- light the underlying divisions and animosity within unionism as election day draws near.

The gains made by the DUP in the 2001 Westminster election and a sense that many unionist voters are increasingly disillusioned with the Belfast Agreement mean the party could be on the verge of becoming the biggest unionist party in the North.

Ulster Unionists are quick to reject this analysis, insisting that their leader's decision to put the Hillsborough deal on hold will win him approval from the party's grassroots.

Passions are strongest in places like West Belfast, where Mr Chris McGimpsey of the Ulster Unionists and Ms Diane Dodds of the Democratic Unionist Party are battling it out in the hope of taking a single unionist seat in a constituency which traditionally returns only nationalist representatives.

In the quiet and reflective atmosphere of the memorial park for victims of the Shankill Road bombing, Mr Trimble shrugged off the significance of the barracking, insisting there was deep support for the Ulster Unionists in the area.

"I got a warm reception from local people. You heard a man from east Belfast shouting at me, you heard a woman shouting at me who has been known to shout at Ulster Unionists for the last 30 years," he said.

"You've got DUP support here, but there is also significant support for Ulster Unionists, and that's shown not only by the '98 election, but also by the local government election in 2001, when Chris's vote went up."

One of those supporters was Mr Stewart Holland, a local butcher, who came out of his shop wearing his red-and-white apron to shake hands with Mr Trimble.

"Chris is there to help the people, he has an office open here every day and does good work for the area," said Mr Holland, whose family has worked in the same shop on the Shankill Road for three generations.

"The way I look at it, you vote for people who do the work and are seen to do the work. There seems to be big support for him, there are a lot of people going in and out of the office. He's getting a good response."

The Shankill area of Belfast, festooned with Union Jack flags and murals commemorating the Queen Mother, has its own problems. The unemployment rate is twice that of the national average, the crime rate is stubbornly high, while the unionist community says it has not had the benefit of its own elected representatives for too many years.

Mr McGimpsey, a member of Belfast City Council for more than a decade, says the majority of locals appreciate the work of the Ulster Unionists on the ground and is hopeful this will be translated into votes on November 26th.

"We need to proactively foster jobs, but it's got to be said that in the 10 years since the ceasefire and the five years since the agreement, there are more jobs here. Firms are now actively looking to set up here," he said.

Having lost out in the last Assembly election by just under 300 votes, he is confident the Ulster Unionists can finally secure a seat in West Belfast if there is a big turnout.

"Last time around 59 per cent of unionists and 80 per cent of nationalists voted. That's the killer. We've got to get out and encourage more people to vote. That's the key."