Much has been made by Sinn FΘin among others of the need to "take the gun out of Irish politics". There is a parallel with policing in Northern Ireland with those endorsing the new arrangements still doggedly wedded to "taking politics out of policing".
On the basis of the year just ended, it is a struggle which has failed. It was a year which began with political optimism at a low ebb and with fury over the Patten recommendations, yet it finished with SDLP and Catholic Church support for the new Police Service of Northern Ireland, the establishment of the Policing Board (minus Sinn FΘin) and agreement on a new badge. Yet despite the unlikely progress, the year ends in even greater controversy, thanks to the Police Ombudsman's report into the RUC handling of the Omagh bomb investigation.
One Omagh relative said, following the issuing of Ms Nuala O'Loan's report on December 12th, that the 32nd victim of the Omagh blast was justice. It could be added that the 33rd victim was the reputation of Sir Ronnie Flanagan as there can be few criticisms more grave than to accuse a Chief Constable of poor leadership and judgment.
Until December, few issues had been so intensely political as the policing debate. This had raged since the Belfast Agreement back in 1998, which underscored the need for a new beginning to policing in the North. So intense had it been that it could now be seen as a microcosm of the debate, not only of the Belfast Agreement but also of the North itself.
Yet for all that, much of the past 12 months had seen the scales tip decisively in favour of progress. Last January, Sir Ronnie still saw his force as white, male and Protestant in character. Nationalists of all shades still viewed 80 years of RUC history with some distaste, viewing the force as symbolic of what was wrong with the old Northern Ireland. Morale within the ranks was disintegrating due to uncertainty over the future and the fierceness of the row over Patten's reform proposals. The Catholic church had not called on its younger members to join the new force. Recruitment had not begun. The SDLP had not decided to join a new policing board. The GAA still clung to rule 21. Indeed the entire fabric of the Belfast Agreement seemed to be unravelling.
By year's end, so much had changed. The institutions envisaged under the agreement are up and running after bouts of disruption, suspensions and resignations. The First Minister is back in office working alongside a new Deputy First Minister and a warmer personal atmosphere pervades Stormont.
The Catholic Church and the SDLP, in what seemed like the neatest in political choreography, endorsed the new policing arrangements. The widely representative Policing Board is working. The GAA scrapped rule 21. The RUC was laid to rest, the PSNI was born.
Sinn FΘin, still guarding its nationalist credentials, is holding out on the new police service but the new SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, confidently predicts that it's only a matter of time. It's a view apparently in tune with Mr Denis Bradley, the Policing Board vice-chairman, who said of Sinn FΘin's list of 20 objections to the new arrangements that 12 were not objections at all but "merely observations about possible outcomes that might or might not happen about real issues that are not in the least bit central".
Those anti-agreement Ulster Unionists who have long been the scourge of their party leader doggedly maintain their struggle to save much of what was the old RUC.
The South Antrim MP, Mr David Burnside, who finally won a revenge election victory over the DUP's the Rev William McCrea in South Antrim, has stuck to his self-appointed task of rescuing both title and symbols of the old force which tie it in firmly with its pro-British establishment past.
The argument runs within dissident Ulster Unionism and is central to the DUP, that the Belfast Agreement in general and moves to reinvent policing in particular, have done nothing other than "hollow out" the legitimate British aspect of Northern Ireland's character.
In conjunction with proposals to neutralise the appearance of police stations, courthouses and other public buildings, the drive to establish a new-look, new-feel policing service is a tool designed to unhinge union with Britain altogether. It has left Mr David Trimble with yet another delicate balancing act. He must work to realise the ambition of the Belfast Agreement, yet be seen to defend both flag and allegiance to the union. It is not uncommon therefore for him to adopt some dissident language when he defends his stance from DUP attack and talks tough about the shortcomings of the SDLP, Sinn FΘin and the British government.
Sir Ronnie departs as Chief Constable this year. What sort of police service his successor will lead is difficult enough to foretell. More difficult still is to estimate the standing such a service will have, not only in the minds of the public in general but in the opinion of the Omagh bereaved in particular.