People weren't fooled when Diane Dodds told them that unionism had to "win the election" by topping the poll and she was the only candidate who could do it. Like all dreams, it disappears as soon as you open your eyes. This morning everyone is waking up to the fact that two unionists have been returned to Europe, just like before; that, unlike the last time, both of them back power-sharing with Sinn Fein; and that the unionist percentage of the vote is much the same as in 2004.
The DUP blundered by making poll topping, or "winning the election" as Diane Dodds put it, the main issue in the election. In boxing parlance, they led with their chins. In his eve-of-poll address, Peter Robinson announced that "only a vote for Diane Dodds can deny Sinn Fein being able to claim to speak for Northern Ireland" and warned that anything else would be a "propaganda victory for Sinn Fein".
Once Jim Allister, an able and hard working MEP, was defending his seat, it was clear that the unionist first preference votes could be spread. The important thing, in unionist terms, was to make sure that eventually they all came together through the transfer system, and that is what happened.
As any politician knows, a win is a win; once you are elected people soon forget how many votes you got unless you keep reminding them. In any case, under the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements, the border can only be removed by a referendum called specially for the purpose. Elections to Europe, the Assembly, the councils or Westminster don't affect it one way or another.
It's insulting to voters' intelligence to claim that each time politicians seek a mandate we could end up a step closer to Irish unity. As the DUP has pointed out in its calmer moments, the position of Northern Ireland within the UK has never been more secure.
In reality, republicans had a poor election. Even in Northern Ireland, their share of the vote declined marginally and that is the least of their problems.
Sinn Fein proclaims itself an all-Ireland party but it lost the one European seat it held in the republic at a time when circumstances could not have favoured it more. The death of the Celtic Tiger and the republic's economic freefall led to a resurgence in the fortunes of all opposition parties and especially of the left. Fine Gael, Labour and smaller socialist groups have all made gains – Sinn Fein alone has failed to catch the tide.
Their biggest problems south of the border are that it is seen as a northern party; the fact that its only European victory was in Northern Ireland will compound this image. Sinn Fein's declared policy of pushing towards Irish unity by taking part in government on both sides of the border lies in tatters. The only forum where it has any influence is Stormont, a place long seen as the centre of British rule and still condemned in the IRA constitution as "a partitionist assembly whose main tasks are treasonable".
This is a turnaround which the founding fathers of Ulster Unionism could scarcely have imagined. The two nationalist parties are now united in support of the police, there is agreement on the legitimacy of the state and republican violence is confined to a tiny isolated minority. After building its support by prophesying doom, the DUP finds that things have turned out all right after all, it has ended up with the leading role in a devolved administration.
This is a situation which unionism needs to stabilise, not to talk into a crisis. Having foolishly inflated the importance of de Brun's vote there may be a temptation to exact revenge by blocking measures, like the devolution of policing and justice, and drawing fanciful lines in the sand on every petty item of legislation.
This would be a serious mistake. The DUP was elected to lead unionism on the promise that it would end "stop go government". If it fails to do so the mantle of leadership will eventually pass from it.
One thing is clear – unionism did not suffer a defeat in the European election. When the sun rose this morning, partition was just as strong as it was in 2004 when Jim Allister came in ahead of Bairbre de Brun.
Nothing has been damaged except the DUP's pride - and that is where matters should rest.