The activists come early at DUP gatherings. Ahead of their formal dinner at the La Mon last night and the main business of the conference today, councillors from across the province gathered yesterday for a full day of seminars and workshops.

It is not primarily dominated by policing and justice, the prospect of power-sharing collapsing or the electoral challenge from Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionists.

The chat is more around recent rulebook changes — more than 80 of them, freshly endorsed by executive members this week — which, in a way, will make the Democratic Unionist Party more, er, democratic.

In the past the ‘Duppers’ have appeared to be almost the personal property of Ian Paisley — what the Big Man said, went — but the times they are a-changing.

For the first time it will mean the party’s officer corps being open to more than MPs.

Even Peter Robinson admits it has been open to the charge of being elitist.

Every single member of the |Executive will be able in future to put items on the agenda, without having to seek approval from the party leadership in advance.

“We are in good heart,” says one veteran County Armagh councillor. “It has been a hard time, and there are challenges ahead. But I feel we are getting to where we need to be.”

Over coffee, another — who also asks not to be identified — admits: “I found it very tough to see Doc (former leader and First Minister Ian Paisley) having to go and the working with (Martin) McGuinness.”

The grassroots members at party conferences who journalists encounter don’t tend to confess their deepest fears.

Conferences are like cup finals, and they have come to cheer, whether full of cheer or not.