The Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party today had talks with the clergymen whose witnessing of IRA arms decommissioning it has questioned.
A former Methodist Church president, the Rev Harold Good, and Catholic priest Fr Alec Reid said on Monday that witnessing the process on a minute-by-minute basis gave them clear and incontrovertible evidence "that beyond any shadow of doubt the arms of the IRA have now been decommissioned".
They have remained tight-lipped since, refusing to give further detail. Dr Paisley said he wanted more - together with an explanation of who appointed them as witnesses.
He said decommissioning chief Gen John de Chastelain had said neither he nor the British or Irish governments appointed the churchmen as official witnesses.
"They were IRA-nominated witnesses," he thundered in disgust after meeting the general. Mr Paisley stopped short of calling the clerics liars, but he questioned how they could know that the weapons they saw decommissioned were all the weapons in the IRA's hands.
Dr Paisley came under heavy criticism from the Ulster Unionists for calling into question the integrity of the clerics, and he denied that he had done so. The Ulster Unionists, who accepted the word of Rev Good and Fr Reid over what they said they saw, also met them at Stormont today.
It is doubtful that the politicians had much more light cast on the issue, since Rev Good made clear in advance that he would not betray a trust by saying more than he had. He added: "I can make no comment. I will go to my grave with all of this."
UUP deputy leader Danny Kennedy revealed after his meeting with the churchmen that they had been ready to carry out their witness roles as far back as last November.