THE TWO schoolgirls sitting on a bench outside Pinky Moons diner in Larne don't know what's hit them. They're busy chatting and texting friends when the Rev Ian Paisley plonks himself down between them. "Any chance of a vote on 7 March, ladies?" he enquires.

A local DUP worker chastises his party leader. "Ian, you've only just arrived in town and already you're stealing the women. There'll be trouble when you go home to Eileen!"

A big smile breaks over the Doc's face as he banters with the teenagers. In this election, it is being claimed that Paisley's past it.

Hardline opponents say that, in the final stage of his political career, the man who shouted "no surrender" has capitulated by agreeing to go into government with Sinn Fein if certain conditions are met. They believe the electorate will punish him. Octogenarian or not, Paisley's still got pulling power, judging by the public reception.

"Hey Big Man, what about ye?" a well-wisher shouts across the road. "Very well for an oul' boy of nearly 81, " Paisley roars back. "I'm eating three meals a day, and a fourth if it's on offer." He'd even take a bowl of Irish stew, he says, surveying the menu in a local cafe.

He's in Larne canvassing for his East Antrim Assembly candidates . . . Sammy Wilson MP, George Dawson and David Hilditch, or the "three musketeers", as he calls them. It's a crisp afternoon and Paisley sports a black fedora. "Where did you get your hat? It's gorgeous!" says a woman shopper.

The DUP leader says it was a gift but, since he's started wearing it, retailers have reported an upsurge in demand for black fedoras.

"Ian's becoming a fashion icon like Princess Diana was, " jokes Sammy Wilson. Paisley tells voters he rises daily "at 4.30am for my porridge and my prayers, whereas Sammy, the scoundrel, creeps out of bed at 10.30 am".

The Doc asks Wilson if he's still got his motorbike. "I wouldn't mind a go on the back but Sammy's never offered, " he says. "You'd be very welcome Ian, " says Wilson. "Angela Smith (former Northern Ireland Office minister) wants a go too. I've told her there'll be newspaper headlines about the DUP taking her for a ride."

The middle-aged teenager On the streets, there is genuine affection for Paisley. Local woman Edna Hill rushes out of Age Concern when she spots him. "I had to come and say hello, " she says, grasping his hand. "Oh, you're freezing Dr Paisley. What are they doing, having you out on day like this?" She baulks when described as one of the DUP's most loyal pensioners: "I'm no senior citizen, I'm a middleaged teenager!" "A bit like myself, " says Paisley.

People treat him like an old friend. "Hello Dr Paisley, you met me and my wee granddaughter a few years ago. I'm Granny Lily, " says one woman.

Undoubtedly, there is unease among unionist grassroots about the DUP potentially entering government with Sinn Fein. But for many ordinary Protestants, it's about trusting Paisley instinctively, not poring over the details of the DUP manifesto. Indeed, it's hard to imagine Paisley doing that himself.

Handing one man a DUP election leaflet, he jokes: "Here's some bedside reading . . . it'll put the wife to sleep for two days!" "I'd like her to sleep for four!" the man complains.

Paisley predicts it will be a "great election", with his party winning new seats across the North: "After 40 years in politics, I can judge the public mood.

"There is no hostility to what I'm doing. A politician has a duty to be honest to his conscience and the electorate. I have been both. I have not wavered. The false propagandists are claiming I've sold out for personal ambition. If I was that way inclined, I'd have trimmed my sails a long time ago."

Honest Bob

Over in Larne market, Bob McCartney . . . UK Unionist leader and the most articulate of Paisley's opponents . . . tells voters the DUP is lying through its teeth. The UK Unionists are contesting 13 constituencies; their leader is running in six. "It's not whether Bob McCartney is the saviour of Northern Ireland, it's whether the people want to be saved, " he says.

"Ian Paisley opposed every unionist leader who tried to do a deal . . . David Trimble, Brian Faulkner, Chichester Clarke, Terence O'Neill. He hunted them all down, and now I'm hunting him.

"The IRA hasn't decommissioned its handguns, it remains organisationally intact, and Sinn Fein's support for the police is qualified.

The DUP has capitulated. If you kick the establishment long and hard enough, they'll make you a member. That's what is happening to Ian Paisley, and he loves it."

Shankill Road born and bred, McCartney is one of the North's most successful barristers. "But I'm still a man of the people. They'll never buy me off. I'm too honest. Even those who don't like what I say know I'm straight."

He is scathing of some DUPers, particularly "that awful little fellow [Jeffrey] Donaldson. He's like a political virus . . .he destroyed the Ulster Unionists, now he's infecting the DUP, " which, McCartney says, largely consists of "a handful of shrewdies and a lorry-load of lobby fodder".

"We need more men with brains like you, Bob, " says one shopper. "Brains can be a positive disadvantage in unionist politics. You end up demonised or expelled, " says McCartney, who suffered the latter fate when an Ulster Unionist.

A man buying fish is "against all this extra money for the Gaelic language". "I'm with you on that, even the Free State ditched that language years ago. But, remember, Paisley disgracefully agreed to more funding for it at St Andrew's, " declares McCartney. A local supporter presents him with Sir Edward Carson's walking stick, which he proudly waves in debate several times during the canvass.

He is joined by Larne councillor Jack McKee, a founder DUP member who resigned recently: "I was with Dr Paisley 38 years. I loved him dearly. I hung on his every word. I can't believe what he's doing."

McKee thinks the DUP is now motivated by lust for power: "Once those boys get their backsides on seats in Stormont, you'll never shift them."

Let battle commence

Although fundamentally a political disagreement, it has also become the battle of Big Bob vs the Big Man. Round one was in Lisburn market when McCartney bumped into team DUP. "I saw this weird creature in a black fedora and heavy German hunting coat, " jokes McCartney. "It was Ian Paisley. He wore a rictus smile.

"He was surrounded by a regiment of DUP supporters.

It was as if he was moving along on castors, wheeled out like Brezhnev in his Kremlin days. The DUP tried to avoid me. Somebody shouted 'left turn'. I followed them but I was very polite. It wasn't an attack. There was only myself and my researcher: for us to have ambushed the Paisley throng would have been like the charge of the light brigade.

"I asked Paisley when did 'never, never, never' turn into 'yes, yes, yes'? His men shouted 'maverick', 'vote-splitter' and 'motormouth' at me. Paisley couldn't answer my question. He ran away. 'Behold the unfaithful steward fleeth, ' I said."

Choice'd be a fine thing McCartney is challenging Paisley to a public debate: "I'll even pay thousands of pounds to hire the Ulster Hall for it, but Paisley won't take me on." He draws historical comparisons.

"Northern Ireland today is the same as Germany after the Weimar Republic's fall. We're facing a choice of two totalitarian ideologies: communism [Sinn Fein] and fascism [the DUP].

"Like the fascists, the DUP want a one-party state. They think they are unionism and nobody should be allowed to challenge them. But it's a fundamental principle of democracy to give the people a choice and that's what I'm doing."

Back with the DUP, Paisley declares McCartney is "talking twaddle" and far from winning more seats will struggle to hold even his own seat in North Down: "Maybe that's why he's so cross." The DUP leader has new admirers. "Hello Dr Paisley, I am Portuguese and I will be voting for you, " says Armando Francisco, who is with three compatriots.

"I like that you are trying to make progress with Sinn Fein, to reach out and compromise.

It is best for people like us. If there is no trouble in Northern Ireland, life will be easier."

After the canvass, the DUP heads for tea and buns in the Mulberry cafe on Main Street.

Somebody orders a cappuccino. "That's very sophisticated for our party, " jokes Sammy Wilson.

So if Martin McGuinness walked in now, would the Doc let him join the company? "No I wouldn't and he'd know not to ask, " declares Paisley. "Even if Sinn Fein delivers and we develop a working relationship, it won't be a love-in. We all have to work with people we detest." "And that's just in the DUP!" quips Wilson.

As the refreshments arrive, the Dublin City Ramblers bellow from the Mulberry's speakers: "Where the strawberry beds sweep down to the Liffey/ You'll kiss away the worries from my brow. . ."Once, Paisley and his people would have complained about "foreign music". This time there isn't a cheep. It's as good a sign as any that, slowly but surely, the DUP is changing.