With just three days to go before voting opens in the EU referendum, and every poll indicating a tight finish ahead, it is not surprising that the pressure is telling on all sides.
The suspension of direct campaigning until yesterday after the appalling murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox, a staunch supporter of the Remain group, was an appropriate move as the tone of many exchanges had already become increasingly bitter and personalised.
It is difficult to estimate the full impact of the dreadful killing in Yorkshire on the outcome, but the comments made in court on Saturday by the man accused of stabbing and shooting Ms Cox will have been widely noted.
What seems to be emerging in wider terms is that the electorate is cynical over the all the bewildering claims and counter-claims about UK economic trends and may well be ultimately swayed by more basic philosophical attitudes towards our European partners.
In many regards, the key division is between those believe that the world is getting smaller by the day, and we need to have positive relationships with all our neighbours, and those who are instinctively suspicious of outsiders and essentially wish to return to the values of the past.
There can be little doubt that the veteran former and present Ulster Unionist members who released a weekend letter in defence of the `sovereignty and independence of the entire UK' fall into the latter camp'.
However, their contribution was out of touch with the leadership of their own party and was reduced to effectively repeating the discredited suggestion from secretary of state Theresa Villiers that `common sense' arrangement with the Dublin authorities could somehow prevent the restoration of full Irish border controls in the event of a British exit or Brexit.
As all the main Dail parties and four of the five largest Stormont groups have stressed, and some key Brexit figures have openly accepted, the idea that what would then become the only land frontier between the UK and the EU would be left open to free movement is unsustainable.
We are facing a crucial decision on Thursday which will have an enormous impact on Ireland, north and south, for decades to come, as the EU, although it has flaws which are fully capable of being addressed, brings massive benefits to all sections of our society.
A confident endorsement of our financial, cultural and political links with the rest of modern Europe is by far the best way to proceed.
