The Rev Ian Paisley has no doubt about what is actually going on in Northern Ireland at the moment. For him it's all-out war as the May 22nd referendum on the Belfast agreement approaches. "I am glad the battle-lines have been drawn," a fiery Dr Paisley shouted at the media in his headquarters last Monday morning.
Dr Paisley, long-experienced at attacking his political foes, had found an enemy of a different kind. On this occasion it wasn't Mr David Trimble, but a certain Mr Quintin Oliver who was the object of the DUP leader's fury.
Mr Oliver is the man spearheading a non-party campaign for a Yes vote in the referendum. On Monday morning as Dr Paisley talked to journalists in the DUP's east Belfast headquarters, "the Yes Campaign" was introducing itself in a city-centre hotel.
Moderates from both sides of the divide, group members stressed that it would not be receiving any money from the Northern Ireland Office or the EU. However, donations have flowed in. More than £50,000 had already been raised on Monday. By Friday, this had risen to £150,000.
Both Dr Paisley and Mr Robert McCartney of the UK Unionist Party have concentrated on attacking the group over the past week, alleging that it is all part of an NIO plot to fool voters into backing the referendum. They have based their argument primarily on a document drawn up by the NIO's director of communications, Mr Tom Kelly, which was leaked to the DUP last month before an agreement was reached.
This set out a strategy for rallying public support behind an agreement and envisaged using church leaders and the heads of community organisations and trade unions "to champion the cause". According to Dr Paisley, Mr Oliver was "the first mover and shaker to raise his head above the parapet".
Critics pounced on the fact that he was a member of President Robinson's Council of State.
In the Belfast office where the Yes Campaign's staff of 10 is getting organised, with equipment and furniture still arriving, Mr Oliver appears unperturbed by the criticism. A list of names on the wall of workers and volunteers is proof they come from both traditions.
"Nobody has told us to do this. Nobody has asked us to do this. We have all taken a risk to do it, in terms of our time and our money," says Mr Oliver, who resigned his job as director of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) to lead the campaign.
The six directors of the Yes Campaign put up some £10,000 between them initially. Money is pouring in from Northern Irish people at home and abroad.
The largest donation, £50,000, came from a London-based businessman, who wants to remain anonymous. They will also be applying for money from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, which also backed the devolution referendums in Scotland and Wales. The Yes Campaign is a registered charity and accounts will be made public. Each of the 10 staff members, including Mr Oliver, receives a wage of £250 per week.
Of the six directors of the campaign, four - Mr Oliver, Ms Fiona MacMillan, Ms Diane Greer and Ms Geraldine Donaghy - have worked in the community or voluntary sector. Mr Bill Jeffrey is a businessman and onetime member of the Alliance Party and Mr Paul Nolan is director of the Workers' Education Association.
The NIO dismisses any suggestion of a link with the group, but says it is encouraged by any support for the peace agreement.
There are still few visible signs on the streets of Belfast of a Yes campaign. Mr Oliver says all this is about to change. "I've raised £150,000 in two weeks. Give me three weeks to spend it."
Leaflets, posters and billboards will be ready by next week. There will also be a series of events highlighting the benefits that would flow from a settlement in various areas such as education and health.
Mr Oliver says personalities from sport, arts and entertainment will also be publicly backing them, as will well-known business people. The Yes Campaign is also liaising with other groups and political parties backing the referendum. Members of the SDLP, the Women's Coalition and the Workers' Party attended its launch.
The campaign may attract people who would be slow to associate themselves with any political party. Mr Oliver says people have never had this opportunity before. "People have come to me and said, `This is exactly what I find comfortable to support' because this is non-party," he said.
He describes himself as coming from "a Protestant, unionist background", and was flattered to be asked to sit on President Robinson's Council of State "without remuneration". It didn't compromise him in any, he says.
But could they be dismissed as do-gooders? "Yes, we want to do good, and I am prepared to risk my reputation, my career, my money for this purpose . . . Those who accuse us of being dogooders, what good are they doing?"