The curious intimacy of the Northern Troubles was in evidence when Gerry Adams appeared this week on Radio Ulster's phone-in radio show Talkback. A loyalist called Ernie from Portadown phoned to say he wanted to "take the gloves off" the security forces so they could "take out" all republican paramilitaries. It was the only answer.
Adams demurred: "Why don't we end all the killing?" Pointing out that Ernie purported to be a democrat, the Sinn Fein leader asked: "Presumably you would be delighted if someone killed me?"
The response was immediate: "I would be over the moon, Gerry." Throughout the exchange the two men remained on first-name terms. When I ask him later about Ernie's death-wish, Adams chuckles: "He should join the queue."
Death-threats over the airwaves are the least of Gerry Adams's worries at the moment. He is the leader of a party which is about to be put to the test in the Stormont talks process. The unionists are still in the building but not in any hurry to talk to him - that little decommissioning matter still has to be settled. There are reports of murmurings in his own ranks: Does Gerry know what he's doing? What's on offer except partition with a bit of window dressing?
Adams says he is bemused by the reaction to a recent article where he wrote that Sinn Fein would press for a "renegotiation of the union" with Britain. "The only interest we have in renegotiating the union is to end it," he insists. "We're not renegotiating the union to strengthen it." He says people, whether naively or for mischievous reasons, should not latch on to such phrases to suggest that Sinn Fein had accepted the "statelet" in the North. "An internal settlement is not a solution: partition has failed."
He sees a united Ireland as perfectly sensible and logical considering the size, population and economic circumstances of the island. But it is also important to pose the demand as a counterweight to Mr Tony Blair's prediction in Belfast on May 16th that not even the youngest person in the hall would live to see the union brought to an end. "We have to remind people that Tony Blair has no special wisdom on this," says Adams. He also sees a need for an "equality agenda" encompassing democratic and economic rights; an end to discrimination in employment; the right to education through Irish; tackling the issue of cultural symbols, flags and emblems; demilitarisation; the release of prisoners and the disbandment of the RUC.
"Equality is what equality says. It isn't as if one allegiance supersedes another or that Protestants should be disemployed in order to employ Catholics. We're not at that game, we are for equality of opportunity and treatment for all citizens." Sinn Fein wants "the maximum constitutional, political and institutional change", but Adams is a realist.
"Negotiations are negotiations, you can't go in and dictate them and have a 'take it or leave it' position. So we have to go in and listen. We will put our position and will obviously look at all sorts of suggestions, ideas and proposals put by others. We will consider all of that in the round as part of how you get a democratic peace settlement.
"Sinn Fein's political objective of Irish unity is there as part of our broad political goal. As part of our peace strategy we want to see a democratic peace settlement. It is down to the skill of our negotiators, broad public and popular opinion and the willingness of the others involved in the negotiations to try and work out a democratic peace settlement which can win the wide support and agreement of all sections of our people. We in Sinn Fein want that democratic peace settlement to bring us as far as is possible towards the goal of Irish unity."
I point out that Sinn Fein chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin, has mooted the possibility of a South Africa-type agreement providing for transition "from the present failed political entity to a democratic structure that all shades of opinion on this island can give allegiance and authority to". This might be "the pragmatic outcome of negotiations - some form of interim or transition political agreement". However Mr McLaughlin did not spell out what he meant in detail. This reticence meets with Adams's approval: "I don't think he should spell it out or that I should spell out what we mean, because we're going into negotiations."
He points out that the peace process is not like a hurling or football match which ends when the whistle blows. "If this phase of negotiations does not bring about Irish unity, it does allow those of us who espouse that goal to continue to do so." He recalls in this context Parnell's declaration that "No man has the right to fix the boundary of the march of a nation".
Part of the difficulty in current circumstances, according to Adams, is that "the unionists never had to negotiate before". He points out that, as part of the 1920-21 settlement, "the unionists got this place given to them on a plate". At any time in the past 70 years, the unionists "could have shaped things in a more inclusive way", Adams says. "The unionists never needed to have a leader. They always needed to have safe pairs of hands." But now the nationalist population was insisting that change had to come. He acknowledges the concerns and aspirations of unionists. There was an onus on nationalists and republicans to "reach out, to negotiate, to argue for, to seek their consent, assent and agreement".
But the British government's role should not be omitted. "I actually resent as an Irish person this notional thing that English politicians in some way are here to keep the warring tribes apart or even in what Dr Mowlam was saying last week, if you please one side it's hard to please the other side, as if in some way they have no responsibility for this situation whatsoever.
"This new British government has to prove itself to nationalist Ireland. The brutality on Garvaghy Road, the way the RUC hacked their way through the residents, shows how easily this government could be moved into the old methods, the old security agenda.
"For as long as British governments maintain a security agenda instead of a political agenda, we're always going to be in difficulty. If a British government, even within its own lights, moves to a political agenda and treats this as a political problem, then everything is possible."
He believes there is a battle going on within the British establishment between the security and political approaches to the North. There is great scrutiny of the republican movement to detect "hawks" and "doves" and he would like to see the same close attention being paid to the British establishment. "I think this British government and Dr Mowlam are probably still on a learning curve." He wonders whether Tony Blair or "some anonymous MI5 or MI6 appointee" is going to govern the North.
As he sees it, Dublin's role is to "develop a strategy for progress" whereby the State apparatus, including diplomats and civil servants, would work to "enhance the peace process and to move it forward in a very democratic way". He is encouraged by the "positive" attitude of the current Taoiseach. He also says trade union and other leaders who organised demonstrations calling for an IRA ceasefire should now be bringing people onto the streets in support of real talks and a lasting peace. Ordinary people should be "taking ownership" of the peace process, which ought to be the subject of debate in all sectors of society.
"What is going to be the product of all this when we're successful, is the transformation of the island of Ireland." This means putting the failings of the Southern state on the agenda too, including poverty, drugs and political corruption. "The whole issue of the future of the island has to be up for grabs."
He is impatient with those who claim the latest IRA ceasefire is "tactical" and short-term. "What the IRA have done is what they were asked to do - to restore the cessation of '94." People shouldn't quibble about it, they should seek to build upon it, he believes.
Despite all that is going on around him, the Sinn Fein leader is a very relaxed man at the moment. Even the latest crisis in the peace process with the unionists rejecting the decommissioning paper doesn't have him biting his finger-nails: "It's up to the two governments to follow through with their commitments to real and substantive talks which deal with all the core issues, and these should start on September 15th as promised."
September 15th is clearly going to be a big day for Gerry Adams.