On the face of it the Progressive Unionist Party threat to walk out of the Stormont talks is over a perceived diplomatic slight rather than a substantive issue.
There is considerably more to it, however - a fact recognised by the Irish Government yesterday when the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, quickly arranged a meeting with the PUP for the first week of January.
The two governments are keen to inject considerable pace into the talks after Christmas and to drive the agenda forward towards the production of a comprehensive agreement to be put to the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic in referendums.
The loud public statements of disquiet by some loyalists and some UUP MPs are taking place in that context. As the parties prepare either to do business or see the talks process dissipate, both loyalists and UUP figures are demanding more concessions, saying that the peace process is leaning too much towards republicans. While some observers believe there is an element of "playacting" in the PUP and Mr Ervine's public threats to leave the talks, there is real concern that loyalists could make it difficult for themselves to back down.
First, the perceived slight. Yesterday week the talks sub-committee discussing confidence-building measures met at Stormont to discuss matters such as the release of prisoners. The Government and the loyalists both contributed to the discussion, but the Government representatives did not mention that, the following day, nine IRA prisoners would be released from Portlaoise Prison.
When this happened, the PUP was furious, their leader, Mr David Ervine, accusing the Government of dishonourable behaviour for not even mentioning this the day before.
The PUP might not be back at the talks at all after Christmas, he said. They were being treated as second-class citizens. On the one hand there were the Stormont talks, but on the other there were "secret surreptitious meetings which the governments hold and where the real decisions are made".
Government sources insist that no slight to the PUP was intended. The releases cannot have come as a complete shock to the loyalists, the sources say, as the Government's position on releasing prisoners is well known. Prisoner releases are not flagged in advance because of security considerations, and this is why the PUP was not told, the sources say.
In recognition of the fact that this is about more than a petty matter of protocol, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, is to meet the PUP in the first week of January. The governments are determined that the pace of the talks should accelerate rapidly after Christmas, and the last thing they want is a protracted dispute with the political representatives of loyalist paramilitaries.
The loyalist concern reflects a perception in their community that the peace process is favouring republicans more than loyalists. This month, for example, nine IRA prisoners in the Republic went free. Ten more have got Christmas parole. More have been transferred from jails in Britain to Ireland.
Families of loyalist prisoners have watched this happen with mounting frustration. In the north, loyalists have been among the 160 prisoners released for up to 10 days Christmas parole, but there have not been early releases. The problem is not that loyalists think republican prisoners are getting a better deal: republican prisoners are getting a better deal.
But that, say Irish Government sources, is not their problem. There are no loyalist prisoners in the Republic's jails - the few that were there were released shortly after the ceasefires were declared. In addition, they point out that the Taoiseach has pressed the British Prime Minister to adopt a more liberal approach to prisoner release.
The differing attitude of the Irish and British governments to the issue of releasing paramilitary prisoners has been the most marked difference between their approaches to the peace process.
The Irish calculation is that releasing prisoners is a key "confidence-building measure" - in other words the paramilitaries will be more amenable to continuing their ceasefires if they see tangible results such as the release of prisoners.
However since the first ceasefires were declared in September 1994, the British Government has taken a different view. The Northern Ireland Office has been slow to give early release to either republicans or loyalists.
Much depends now on whether Mr Ervine wins some concessions that can be shown to be a tangible result of his and his community's involvement in the talks process.