Brian Faulkner, the last unionist leader to try to do a political deal with Catholic nationalists, was brought down by Protestant rejectionists in 1974.

ECONOMIST: Ever closer

Details of a message sent to the Northern Ireland Prime Minister, Brian Faulkner, from the then British Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas Home, were also presented.

BBC: Inquiry hears of army shooting

However, Mr Nesbitt, who helped form the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland with the former Prime Minister Brian Faulkner in 1974, warned that new parties don't always work "because people don't always follow".

BBC: Northern Ireland

Mr Trimble's most dangerous internal opponent is his own deputy, John Taylor, the man whose vote of no confidence destroyed a previous power-sharing agreement and unseated a previous Ulster Unionist leader, Brian Faulkner, in 1974.

ECONOMIST: Trimble��s gamble