Analysis:Despite a good turnout, the mood at the Ulster Unionist Party conference was downbeat, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor
David Trimble arrived at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast on Saturday morning to cast his vote in the election of Ulster Unionist Party officers. He then quickly exited the building, leaving the stage clear for new leader, Sir Reg Empey.
The post-Trimble era had officially begun. His presence throughout the day would have left many delegates feeling uncomfortable.
In any case, Mr Trimble had more wit than to hang around. As he drove home along the M1 he must have experienced a sense of a dense, dark cloud lifting - a sense, as he awaits his seat in the House of Lords, of political and personal liberation.
However, Sir Reg Empey is still a prisoner of the Ulster Unionist Party. Like Sinn Féin, this is its centenary year, but the contrast in the fortunes of the two parties could hardly be starker. There was little or nothing for Sir Reg to celebrate on Saturday.
For much of the 20th century the UUP was the unionist ascendancy party. Now, with just one seat at Westminster, its role is the minor one. Ian Paisley lords it over unionism.
Therefore the task for Sir Reg was to convince delegates that the UUP was still a force to be reckoned with, still relevant, still capable of influencing the outcome of the political struggles yet to be decided.
There was a good turnout for the conference, about 500 or 600, so there is still some fire in the belly of Ulster Unionism; some embers of hope are burning. A number of fresh, younger faces were also elected to the officer board to replace some of the old guard.
Lord Rogan also defeated former MP Rev Martin Smyth for the presidency of the party, heralding the end of the pro- and anti-Belfast Agreement battles that tore apart the party.
Yet, on the margins of the conference the mood was quite pessimistic and fatalistic. Delegates, while striving to keep the Ulster Unionist faith, were downhearted. As one said, they felt they would be on the back foot to the DUP for a "generation at least".
In his first conference as leader, the daunting challenge for Sir Reg was to inject renewed spirit and backbone into the party. He hardly expected to electrify the delegates - Ulster Unionists tend to be too staid and conservative for that sort of stimulation - but at least in his strong speech he illustrated his political nous and his leadership capability.
His delivery lacked some oomph, but the content was interesting, dealing with the issues of the day, and setting out the beginnings of a recovery strategy.
Centrally, that strategy entails concentrating on the differences between the UUP and DUP, as outgoing chairman James Cooper said, creating "clear blue water" between the two parties.
Sir Reg did so in a manner that David Trimble seldom did or could: he concentrated on the positive. While the DUP warns about treachery and subterfuge, it was implicit in the leader's speech, and indeed from the whole conference, that unionists believe the conflict is over.
"For republicans who murdered, maimed, bombed and robbed for 35 years their needless and futile 'war' is at an end. But, generally speaking, they'll become 'political', just as others have, and we in the Ulster Unionist Party and the DUP will have to deal with that reality," he said.
Sir Reg was accused of being ambiguous on loyalist violence during the Orange Order Whiterock parade and of cosying up to Ian Paisley. This time he was unequivocal, demanding loyalists "call it a day", and notably conceding that "political unionism" played a part in encouraging loyalist paramilitarism.
He accused the DUP of "blood-curdling speeches" and "middle-of-the-night mountainside adventures".
There were no encomiums for Mr Trimble at the conference, but at least Sir Reg, from a party perspective, insisted that it was UUP policy during the peace process - which Trimble shaped - that helped persuade republicans to accept the consent principle.
In reference to the DUP he said, "What our opponents did do - and they did this well - was sell the lie that it was all pain for unionists, and all gain for republicans. Our mistake was that we allowed them to peddle this untruth.
"For them, it was more important to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and blame us for what ensued."
There is however a difficulty here in highlighting genuine differences between the parties. As Mr Trimble has identified in the past, the extremes aren't as extreme as they used to be: Sinn Féin has moved onto much of the SDLP's territory; and as UUP Assembly deputy leader Danny Kennedy said on Saturday, the DUP has stolen "some of the clothes" of the UUP. It's easier now for moderate unionists to vote for Paisley.
Nonetheless, Sir Reg's strategy is to slowly, step-by-step try to rebuild the party, stress the UUP/DUP distinctions, and simply to "hang in" while putting it up to Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and their colleagues to deliver now that they have the reins of power.
"The clock is ticking, and an anxious electorate is waiting to see if the largest unionist party has more to it than out-dated catch phrases and backward policies. Our role will be constructive. To continue the job of rebuilding, not to undermine or to wreck," said Sir Reg, reinforcing his argument that - downbeat as Ulster Unionists are - if the Doc falters, there is a unionist alternative.