The Ulster Unionist family came together on Saturday at the funeral of the party president, Sir Josias Cunningham, who died in a traffic accident last week.
Those from the party's Yes and No camps gathered at First Donegore Presbyterian Church, in Parkgate, Co Antrim, to pay their respects.
The First Minister, Mr David Trimble, and party colleagues from Stormont, Westminster and Europe accompanied the cortege on its way into the church.
Among the mourners were Sir Josias's widow, Anne, his sons Stephen and Jonathan and daughters Miranda and Penny.
The three UUP Executive Ministers, Sir Reg Empey, Mr Michael McGimpsey and Mr Sam Foster, were present. Mr Jeffrey Donaldson MP and Mr David Burnside, the UUP Westminster candidate for the area, were also there, as were the former party leader, Lord Molyneaux, Lord Laird and Mr Jim Nicholson MEP.
The Higher and Further Education Minister, Mr Sean Farren of the SDLP, represented his party, and the Northern Ireland Office Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, represented the British government. Ms Eileen Bell, president of the Alliance party, also attended.
Mourners heard the Rev Jim Tolland tell of Sir Josias's "calming influence" on the UUP and the high regard in which he was held. "His loss has been felt deeply by his party," he said.
Sir Josias was the epitome of a unionist grandee of the old school. Mr Tolland said he was "honest, upright, trustworthy, hard-working", but that there was much more to him.
Sir Josias was former chairman of the Belfast Stock Exchange, "yet for all his experience and flair for business he still found the time to help many people in their ordinary everyday financial affairs."
He had been keenly interested in nature and was a member of the Ulster Wildlife Trust, the National Trust, the Northern Ireland Game Trust, the Countryside Alliance and the RSPB. Mr Tolland said he had also a "passion" for history, with interests in the Linen Hall Library, the Ulster Society and the Drapers' Company.
"It seems incredible that one man could do so much and yet the list goes on. Charities were another branch of Joe's involvement," Mr Tolland said.
He was active with the Northern Ireland Council for Disability and had recently been appointed chairman of Clifton House, the charitably-run home for the elderly in Belfast.
"A lesser man would have been ready to take things slower at retirement age but Joe was busier than he ever had been with his involvement in local politics," Mr Tolland said.
During the funeral, Sir Josias's children also paid tributes. Mr Stephen Cunningham read If, by his father's favourite writer, Rudyard Kipling.
His daughter, Miranda, said he had been "the rock behind our family and extended family". He had always feared growing old and infirm, she said, and had commented that it was best to "leave a party when you are still having fun".
"To some of you, he was a farmer. To some of you he was a stockbroker. To some, he was a conservationist. To some he was a steadying hand in a political crisis.
"What we must do now is think what Joe would have done. If we can come up with that answer, then we are on the right lines."
Sir Josias's remains were given a police escort to Roselawn, Belfast, for cremation.