Bloody marvellous. Absolutely bloody marvellous. Paddy's Day again, and the third anniversary of the Castlereagh break-in, which should have brought the three governments closing in on Sinn Féin-IRA like a hunting party on a man-eating tiger. Kevin Myers is not best pleased
Instead, we have had an unbroken diet of appeasement, triumphing with the murder of Robert McCartney and the Taoiseach promising he will continue to engage with Sinn Féin.
It doesn't matter who did the Securicor robbery. The moral example has been set. The Taoiseach has said he believes Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams knew about the Northern Bank robbery when he had his last talks with them.
So, what is the moral difference between the organisers of the Securicor raid and the Northern Bank raid? And will the Taoiseach put aside some quality time for the lads who did Securicor? They too have their feelings; they too wish to feel some equality of prime ministerial esteem. Perhaps a weekend in Chequers too - for this is the way the two governments treat those who systematically and massively violate the law.
What is this peace process? The process exists only in the minds of those who have meetings. It doesn't exist in the minds of any of those who were in Magennis's pub the night poor Robert McCartney breathed his last, whether or not they're in Sinn Féin. They know the price to be paid for assisting the police service of Northern Ireland, to be followed by giving evidence in court. That price is the affirmation that whatever this process can be called, the word peace doesn't enter into it.
For this is actually a corrosion process: steadily the institutions of the State are under threat from the dry rot of the Sinn Féin-IRA project. The aim is not to get power in Northern Ireland and maintain the Border - do you really think that the Sinn Féin-IRA leadership could sell that to South Armagh and the descendants of the Defenders in Tyrone? Do you think that the republican objective is to keep the red pillar-boxes on the Falls Road, and letters from British Internal Revenue marked OHMS to the people there? If that were genuinely the case, the IRA Army Council would be in seashore graves along the north Louth coastline, and young men we've never heard of would have taken their place.
Many, many aspects of this peace process appal me: the abject political weakness, the willingness to turn a blind eye, and the disgraceful and unquestioning journalism which has enabled Sinn Féin-IRA representatives to appear plausible and sincere.
But the worst thing has been the failure to take these people seriously, and to show them, and their lifelong project, the respect they deserve.
For these are not ordinary people, but zealots sworn to pursue a cause to which they have dedicated almost every moment of their lives. For those who are Catholic - and most are - they have done deeds for which, within the belief system of their Church, they could sacrifice their immortal souls. The priest in confession does not forgive, but utters the words of absolution. If the wish to sin remains in the so-called penitent's heart, the sin is unshriven, and those who then take the sacraments with mortal sin on their soul further compound that terrible sin, transforming it into a reserved sin, which is a ticket to hell and for which only a bishop can grant absolution.
That is what these men and woman are prepared to do for their cause. They are very serious people indeed, worthy of the utmost respect and of a matching martial rigour in reply. Do those bright and sloothering souls in the Department of the Taoiseach and of Foreign Affairs really believe that IRA men submerged captives in baths of water until their victim's eyes were popping and the blood vessels in their faces were rupturing simply in order to get power-sharing within the UK? Do they really believe that the IRA held Caroline Moreland, a 34-year-old mother of three, captive for 10 days - dear Christ in heaven, can you imagine what those 10 days consisted of? - before murdering her, only weeks before the first ceasefire, simply for nothing?
The project to bring Sinn Féin to power north and south continues. Twenty years ago and more, Sinn Féin-IRA inserted sleepers into various institutions in this country with instructions to keep their noses clean and to wait for the call to activation. The next stage of the project will occur this spring, when the British general election will see the virtual extinction of the Ulster Unionist Party, probably with David Trimble losing his seat. The SDLP too could well disappear.
In the summer, republican activists will do their best to limit, re-route and stop loyalist marches, the intent being to increase the sectarian tension in the province. Like a cunning judo wrestler, Sinn Féin will probably use the weight of Orangeism against itself. Meanwhile Northern Protestants, unable to bear the moral and political contamination occurring within their society, are taking to the boat: attritional genocide.
And from our Shinner-friendly commentators, what absurdity next? Will those ridiculous figures who huffed and puffed that the IRA did not do the Northern Bank raid now further enrich their credentials with further Provo-friendly utterances? Only the Americans are showing leadership on this issue.
They smell the fish. If democracy is to survive on this island, it is time the Taoiseach did too.