There is a scene in As the Beast Sleeps, Gary Mitchell's powerful play at the Peacock Theatre, in which Freddie, the furious and unreconstructed loyalist, tells it as he sees it.
I haven't got the exact text, but his view of the present state of play in Northern Ireland goes something like this: Taigs hate Prods and vice versa. Taigs have fought and fought for the past 30 years and now they are winning. Unless Prods take action to reverse that situation, it will be too late.
Clean up the language and substitute political advance for violence and this reflects pretty accurately, I imagine, what many members of the unionist community, even those who voted for pro-agreement candidates, feel about last week's election. The contest for the Assembly points up in the most stark fashion the difference in the political mood of the two communities.
The once impregnable unionist monolith has fractured beyond repair in a welter of public recriminations and rows on television. It isn't just the Rev Ian Paisley bellowing from the sidelines, though the Big Man has shown once again how foolish it has been to ignore him.
Even more dramatic, and a greater threat to hopes for the Belfast Agreement, are the divisions and general demoralisation within the Ulster Unionist Party. Already people are talking about a realignment of unionism and asking whether David Trimble is doomed to follow Brian Faulkner into the ranks of those who tried to reach an honourable accommodation with nationalism and were frustrated by fear and tunnel vision within their own community.
It is difficult to see how, in the short term, the situation is going to improve for those unionists who are experiencing such difficulty coming to terms with the future. More and radical changes are going to have to be accepted as the terms of the agreement are implemented and, from where they stand, these changes are all one way.
By contrast, Northern nationalism has a new confidence and maturity honed painfully over many years. This was evident in the size of the nationalist vote - the largest ever - and in the pattern of transfers. The sniping and aggression which used to mark encounters between the SDLP and Sinn Fein seem to have been put on hold, at least in public. It was noticeable at the count in Belfast City Hall when Sinn Fein supporters were much more friendly and relaxed than at previous elections.
As Gerry Adams said: "I think there is a new sense of assertiveness and confidence within nationalism and that we are a part of that, which makes me very happy."
This confidence found expression in the referendum vote last month. There is overwhelming support for the agreement within the nationalist community and a genuine sense of having, for the first time, a stake in the government of Northern Ireland. But making the accord work poses formidable challenges to the main nationalist parties, particularly Sinn Fein.
David Trimble is in a desperately precarious position. The number of people on whom he can depend within his own party is probably even fewer than we know. In circumstances of adversity, politicians look to their own survival. Yet he and his supporters remain the best hope of implementing the agreement so as to provide a bridge to lasting peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
Nationalists will have to remember this in the weeks and months ahead. Mr Trimble is going to come under enormous pressure from his own people as well as from the dissenters on the outside. The problem of decommissioning is likely to loom like a storm cloud. The UUP leader's instinct will be to try to delay the formation of an executive and the setting up of cross-Border bodies for as long as possible. Left to its own devices, the SDLP would probably be inclined to be patient. John Hume and Seamus Mallon have spent a lifetime in politics to bring this project to fruition, and their priority is to ensure its success. They could afford to wait a little longer to give Trimble the time he needs to reassure his own ranks.
Whether Gerry Adams will be prepared to take this long-term view is another matter. On the one hand Sinn Fein sees this as a period of transition when change has to be managed carefully. That means making the agreement work.
On the other, the party is impatient for change on a whole range of issues to come quickly. After his election on Friday Gerry Adams said: "People want to see me and others like me take our place in the new institutions. I think the work in the days ahead must be to put all these structures - cross-Border bodies, ministers, the new executive - in place."
Mr Adams is also under pressure, not just from dissident republican groups, but from those of his own members who will interpret any delay in the pace of change as the exercise, yet again, of the unionist veto on progress.
There is an argument that Mr Trimble should move fast and decisively to take the agreement forward, but that has not been his way in the past, and is probably impossible now. The priority must be to get through the next few months so that the pro-agreement politicians can build mutual trust and gain confidence from the exercise of power and patronage.
Their most important support as they go about this task must be the will of the people of Northern Ireland. Seventy-one per cent voted Yes in the referendum, and this was endorsed by the number of votes for pro-agreement candidates last Thursday.
We know there is no appetite in either community for a return to violence. People are desperate to escape the sterile divisions of the past, but some are still fearful of what that will mean in practice. Convincing them of the need for change will not be easy, but the political leaders of both communities in Northern Ireland have travelled a long and bumpy road already. They must not falter now.