The review of the Belfast Agreement, currently under way and set to conclude by Easter, has been galvanised and focused by reactions to the alleged paramilitary capture of Mr Bobby Tohill last Friday and his subsequent rescue by PSNI officers.
Both governments and all participants except Sinn Féin blame this act on the Provisional IRA and believe it breaches the agreement.
Yesterday Mr David Trimble raised the stakes by saying his party will withdraw from the review if action is not taken. Both Mr Ahern and Mr Blair made their impatience clear. This sets the stage for a crucial meeting of the review group next Monday, the day after Sinn Féin's ardfheis concludes.
That party must now decide categorically to abandon violence and break the connection with those who practise it. By doing so it would also break the negotiating logjam and put itself in a much more powerful position to shape the outcome of this review.
In his keynote speech at the University of Ulster last week Mr Ahern said there can be "no half-way house between violence and democracy", just as there can be "no comfortable resting place between exclusion and partnership". As he argued, the two principles are closely related. For the republican movement, "that means bringing definitive closure to paramilitarism. It means absolute commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic means". For unionism, "it means signing up to the imperative of a total partnership, based on the inclusion of all parties, whose electoral mandate gives them a right of participation".
Mr Ahern's remarks last week rounded off nationalist Ireland's response to the important proposals put forward earlier this month by the Democratic Unionist Party as their contribution to the review of the Belfast Agreement. In supporting devolved government by offering three different models to work it, the party said it is willing to share power with Sinn Féin if it parts company definitively with paramilitarism. This has been widely recognised by nationalist parties as a rubicon crossed by the DUP now that it has assumed a leadership role as the largest unionist party in the assembly. It was confirmed by yesterday's refusal of that party to follow Mr Trimble's withdrawal threat. Mr Martin McGuinness, speaking for Sinn Féin as the largest nationalist party, has acknowledged that business can be done with the DUP.
Mr McGuinness had a tough meeting with Mr Ahern yesterday, the weekend's paramilitary events looming large in their discussions. The issue has been building up for a long time, since both governments were up to now willing to acknowledge incremental movement made towards an exclusively political process.
The time has now come to complete the transition. It is impossible to see the review being successfully completed without a recognition by Sinn Féin that exclusively political means will apply in future, along with convincing evidence this is accepted by the Provisional IRA.