A Big Man needed a big funeral. And here was the funeral of one of Ireland’s largest and most controversial figures but it was held behind a marquee-type tent with just his family present.

It was odd. There was something just not quite Irish, not quite Ulster, that it should take place with his old friends and foes excluded. And Ian Paisley, as he acknowledged himself, was very much Ulster and very much Irish. And he enjoyed company.

In keeping with his own character and personality, one would have imagined a rambunctious maybe even slightly rowdy send-off for him.

Present would have been his former DUP colleagues, some of whom he became estranged from including Peter Robinson. There also would have been Sinn Féiners such as Martin McGuinness and maybe even Gerry Adams. There too would have been Protestant evangelicals including some of his old Free Presbyterian lieutenants who detached themselves from him when he went into government with Sinn Féin.

Perhaps it might have been too rowdy, too Irish. Maybe that was why Dr Paisley in one of his last decisions opted to have it just as a family affair. Still . . .

So, as a lone piper led the cortege to Ballygowan Presbyterian Church in Co Down yesterday afternoon, Assembly members gathered in the chamber of Parliament Buildings in Stormont to pay some final respects.

It must have been awkward for First Minister Peter Robinson who was at his right shoulder going back to the early 1970s but in the end was judged by Dr Paisley to have betrayed him.

But Robinson carried it off reasonably well in the circumstances. Paisley had "outclassed all around him" and his passing left Northern Ireland politics "a little less colourful and exciting", he said.

He finished by urging politicians to complete the job of reconciliation: “He no longer sits among us, but we are entrusted with his legacy and stirred by his injunction to finish the course and do our bit in securing lasting peace and stability for the land he loved so much.”

Martin McGuinness said something similar: “We all have to rise to the occasion, folks. This is about peacemaking and building a better future for our young people.”

Fine words from the First Minister and Deputy First Minister but when all the politicians trooped out to the great hall to sign the book of condolence the body language between Robinson and McGuinness was just awful – the positive bonhomie Paisley engendered with the man he liked to call “the Deputy” totally absent.

But, as said, it must have been a difficult day for Robinson.

Five miles away at Belfast City Hall the mood was relaxed and natural and sad. James Moore from the Shankill, after signing the book of condolences, recalled the time his six-months-old baby girl, Carly died from a lung illness and how unasked Ian and Eileen Paisley called him into a room of the Martyrs Memorial Church and "handed me over a cheque for £500".

Moore passed on the donation to a children’s charity but since then was always struck by the quiet charity shown by the Paisleys. “I thought he was a nice fellow.”

Anne Collins from the Catholic side of the fence said she felt quite a “warm” feeling for Dr Paisley which was why she signed the book. “Through all my childhood he seemed to cause a lot of problems,” she said. “But lo and behold he had a complete change of heart. And if he hadn’t done that we might still be in the middle of that nightmare we lived through during all those years.”