Gunpowder, treason and plot in Unionism – and it's not even the 12 July, let alone Guy Fawkes night in November.
Word is seeping through the Stormont corridors that a so-called 'Facebook Fight' is set to erupt within the election battered Ulster Unionists as they seek to define a future role.
The general conclusion is that a formal split in the party between its rival liberal and Right wings is inevitable.
It would be wrong to dismiss this latest scrap as little more than tittle tattle gossip from inside a divided Unionist family.
The recent Stormont and council polls were the first real occasion when social networking was used as an effective campaigning tool.
Rumour has it that some Unionists may be using Facebook to build up a network of supporters who will defect in block to the Alliance Party, to make it the third force in Northern politics.
While the UUP Right-wing may have the bigger numbers, the liberal wing is better organised at where it wants to go – and that is into a middle ground merger with Alliance.
The once mighty Unionist Party which dominated Stormont for generations is now struggling to hold on to fourth spot around the Executive table.
While the Robbo camp and Shinners have a firm grasp on the top two spots, the next five-year term at Stormont will set the scene as to who becomes that middle ground third force.
It will be a three-horse race between the SDLP, Alliance and UUP. There can only be one winner, and someone will have to merge with Alliance.
The UUP's liberal wing is first out of the traps and realises it has to cut a deal with Alliance before Alliance's soft nationalist wing does a deal with the Stoops.
Gone are the days of rival Good Friday Agreement pressure groups when there was the anti-Trimble Union First in one corner, and the pro-Trimble Re:Union in the Yes camp.
Facebook will be the big battlefield in this war as people are both befriended and unfriended. There will be no more secret meetings in Orange halls or cozy coffee mornings in plush hotels.
The future of the middle ground will be decided in the comfort of living rooms or on office computers.
Already the games have begun as rumours abound as to whose Facebook site is the real nest of the coup against UUP boss Tom Elliott. The Elliott camp is also getting organised – again, the rumour mill is churning out names of sites to watch who becomes friends with whom.
At the moment, both the DUP and Sinn Féin are laughing their orange and green socks off at this political hocus-pocus.
But as the peace process has demonstrated, many's a true word is said in jest. OK, the Shinners and Robbo camp have their standards firmly planted in the middle ground. Both are no longer viewed by the political establishments in London and Dublin as extremists or firebrands.
The DUP and Sinn Féin cannot afford to sit back on their respective electoral laurels for the next half decade. They must ensure that middle ground does not slip away to a realigned third force – be it SDLP/Alliance or liberal UUP/Alliance.
It's said the 'Facebook Fight' could see the UUP Right-wing end up in a formal merger with the DUP. Certainly, as demonstrated by the doomed Belfast City Hall plot, a Unionist Coalition is back on the agenda.
Forget Jim Allister's TUV. It will merely provide us hacks with amusing sound bites for a few years until it goes the way of Bob McCartney's United Kingdom Unionist Party.
The current mood in Northern politics is to become trendy liberals. This liberal trend is being set by a Republic-loving queen Bess and an Irish-loving President Obama. Everyone wants to jump on this peace-loving, liberal bandwagon.
Of course, what genuine, life-long liberals have to watch is just who they let onto their ever-expanding bandwagon. I have even heard hardline, Right-wing Unionists muttering about 'infiltrating' Alliance as a new path to power.
Alliance may come to politically regret being promoted to the third force of the North. As both the UUP and SDLP struggle for a political direction, could the safest route be a coup to take over the now trendy Alliance?
