DECOMMISSIONING: If the IRA never really went away, neither did the dread 'D' word. Argument about decommissioning raged from the outset. The British and Irish governments thought to finesse the matter by asserting that, while not a pre-condition for Sinn Féin's entry into the devolved government at Stormont, it was nevertheless an obligation under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
This week in the House of Commons sees MPs renewing the immunities covering any persons acting in connection with decommissioning schemes. However, while framing legislative provision for decommissioning illegal weapons has proved relatively straightforward, securing a process of disarmament sufficient to build and sustain public confidence has not.
Gen John de Chastelain's International Commission has reported two acts of IRA decommissioning. However, the original enthusiasm generated by these proclaimed "historic" moves has long since dissipated in the wake of Colombia and FARC, the raid on the Castlereagh police complex and the alleged IRA spy ring at Stormont.
By Mr David Trimble's remarkably candid account, he has had his eye wiped three times in as many years on decommissioning. Last autumn he told the BBC's John Humphreys he had only agreed to return as First Minister in late 2001 on the promise of ongoing disarmament which, he said, ended almost as soon as he resumed office.
The UUP leader's failure to deliver on his party's decommissioning promises has been a complicating factor in the politics of unionism over the past 4½ years.
Indeed his willingness to disappoint his own party and trust republican good faith at critical moments is evidence of an enduring fidelity to the agreement now only grudgingly recognised by nationalist, republican and Irish politicians.
On August 15th, 1998, as news of the Omagh bombing broke, Ken Maginnis was putting the finishing touches to a position paper on decommissioning. It said the UUP would find it impossible to sit with Sinn Féin, even in a "shadow" administration, until the IRA had undertaken a "verifiable disposal".
Thereafter the UUP would formally enter government with Sinn Féin upon the commencement of weapons disposal to be completed according to strict scheduling over the ensuing months.
In July 1999, the British and Irish governments attempted to secure the establishment of the Executive in response to a perceived seismic shift in republican thinking by proposing legislation providing for reports by the International Decommissioning Commission, with decommissioning to be completed by May 2000.
This Northern Ireland Bill was aborted when Mr Trimble refused to trigger the d'Hondt mechanism for the appointment of ministers in July 1999. However unionists see it as providing precedent for a legislative framework specifying any future disarmament process.