It's taken a long time, but there's no doubting that the Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, and his effective deputy, Mr Martin McGuinness, have arrived. They've travelled the long journey from the Armalite to the ballot box, where if they keep to the terms of the Belfast Agreement they will lead a more than "slightly constitutional" party.
As a measure of Sinn Fein entering the political fold proper, nobody took a blind bit of notice that, after the referendum result was announced on Saturday, Mr Gerry Adams should be speaking by telephone to the US President, the British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach. A normal day for New Sinn Fein.
All Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness lack are the cars. And they may have them very soon. They have the look of "constitutional" politicians. They have the electoral support, the necessary gravitas leavened with humour, the influence at home and abroad and, of course, the sharp suits - with Mr McGuinness occasionally favouring the more rustic tweedy look.
Mr Adams normally travels about in a clapped-out, dark-windowed, bullet-proof Ford Estate. Soon he may be consigning that vehicle to the scrap heap in favour of a ministerial saloon car, possibly even a Mercedes Benz.
Here's an image to contend with: Mr Adams, in the back of his ministerial car heading down the long avenue of Stormont past the Carson statue, his briefcase opened beside him, as he pores over various Northern Ireland Office documents relating to his particular Assembly executive brief, say urban and rural development or transport matters.
Sinn Fein has signed up to the Belfast Agreement, and should it maintain its electoral support base it should have two ministers in the assembly executive, as the terms of the agreement allows.
Coming in from the political cold was a long, dangerous and difficult venture for Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness. They took the political risks, leading from the front rather than traipsing after the coat tails of their grassroots, so perhaps they deserve whatever prime positions and international accolades are on offer.
Even the most bitter opponents of Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness admit grudging admiration for their political skills. The DUP deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson - while abhorring everything they stand for - nonetheless admitted during the course of the referendum campaign that they were brilliant tacticians and propagandists.
Mr Adams admires the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair. From their first meeting, Mr Adams reckoned he was a leader who wanted to do business, and with whom he could do business. Their compatibility made sense because what Mr Blair did to the Labour party, Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness did to Sinn Fein.
Where Mr Blair created New Labour, moderating the party's traditional hard leftwing stance, Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness - since gaining control a dozen years ago - gradually softened their movement's previously inflexible position on basic principles. In so doing they became icons of the new republicanism.
In 1986 Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness challenged the old guard of Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh and Mr Daithi O Conaill for the effective leadership of Sinn Fein. Fought over whether the party should take Dail seats, Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness won convincingly. There was a minor split, but a manageable split, and this seems to be the case again now.
As Sinn Fein's electoral position gradually strengthened so did the position of the new leaders. It was so strong that, even in very perilous times, republicans maintained almost absolute faith in Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness.
They did what the SDLP had been challenging them to do for years. They slowly, sometimes subliminally, sometimes directly, told their supporters that the dual militaristic-political strategy of the IRA and Sinn Fein was not the way forward. Their language began to change, evolving from the "Brits Out" of the 1970s all the way to this agreement being a `transitional' stage to a united Ireland - not this year, but some day, and perhaps not necessarily in the near future.
And Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness made friends and influenced them - and then some - in Northern Ireland, in Dublin, in Washington. First it was the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, then the Taoiseach of the day, Mr Albert Reynolds, then the powerful Irish-American bloc in the US, and later the President of the United States Bill Clinton. While they may not have warmed so well to Mr John Bruton when he was Taoiseach, they had an ally in his successor, Mr Bertie Ahern.
Such was their networking expertise that even in the absence of an IRA ceasefire they persuaded President Clinton, against the wishes of Mr John Major, to grant Mr Adams a short visa to New York in early 1994. Even after the first ceasefire collapsed, President Clinton never totally lost faith with Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness. They in turn played ball with their new-found influential friends by helping bring about the second ceasefire.
All this international statesmanship on the part of Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness was crucial in psychological terms. If paramilitarism was ever to be abandoned in favour of pure politics, republicans had to lose their pariah status. Their admission to Government Buildings in Dublin, to 10 Downing Street in London, and the White House in Washington all helped ordinary republicans feel that if not loved they were at least respected.
The standing of Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness on the international stage mattered in keeping republicans on board "the peace settlement train". It helped persuade them that just possibly this constitutional politics business might be worth trying. Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness have the confidence and the competence to build on their achievements. The passing of the referendum will thrust them further into the international limelight. Commentators, maybe even international politicians, will want to hear if they have any ideas how other apparently intractable problems such as Israel and the Palestinians might be solved.
They have radical chic, and that's a prime commodity. The Sinn Fein leader and the Sinn Fein chief talks negotiator will exploit those opportunities as they have taken advantage of every other opportunity that came their way. As a measure of Sinn Fein's standing Mr Adams is travelling to the US this week, where he will be entertained by Wall Street financiers, leading editors, and senior White House officials. For Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness the world's their stage. Without abandoning their base they've come a long way from their Ballymurphy and Bogside roots.