Some time ago I met one of those curious, invisible NIO people at the heart of the peace process. I tried to explain to him why I loathed the compromises and the fudges involved. He politely told me I was wrong, hadn't a clue what was going on, and the port stood by me, writes Kevin Myers.
And he was right. I hadn't a clue what was going on - still haven't - and the port did stand by me. I poured, I passed, I supped, and I brooded. There is much to brood about, if only it is my own stupidity: for at each and every turn, no matter how braced I think I am for the next peace process revelation, I'm invariably astonished by it.
So, I genuinely thought it would be impossible for a Sinn Féin-IRA squad which dabbled in a terrorist war abroad to be adjudged as if they were Poor Clare medical missionaries who'd been kidnapped by Robert Mugabe. Yet the only party leader who instantly understood the dangers of the proposed all-party delegation to Colombia was Pat Rabbitte, who made Joe Costello - Labour spokesman for Justice, for God's sake - withdraw from the Colombian delegation.
Pat Rabbitte is perhaps the best informed opponent of terrorism in the Dáil, and therefore its most uncompromising opponent. He was part of that group of young lefties who dragged the old Official IRA from the stinking dungeons of gun-worship into the open uplands of democratic politics. He has stood next to the gun-culture: he knows how evil and contaminating it is.
The charm of the green flag
Neither Enda Kenny nor Bertie Ahern would have had the gumption or the guts to take the action that Pat Rabbitte did. For populist nationalism seems to have become the common standard of the major political parties of the Republic, especially as economic difficulties make the green flag an irresistible garment. At least Sean Power - apparently alone within Fianna Fáil - also clearly understood that the Colombian holiday would merely be grist for the Sinn Féin propaganda mill.
Otherwise, green nationalism is triumphant everywhere at the most trivial levels. What outcry has there been at the recent intimidation of workers re-erecting the ornate cast-iron cupola in Dun Laoghaire, the original of which was destroyed by the IRA (oh well done chaps: by Jove that took some pluck) in 1981? The construction work was stopped, and merely on the strength of a few threats by thugs: such threats would have no value unless there was a genuine belief that they would be enforced by the IRA.
Sinn Féin-IRA live in a government-created world without consequence, a padded nursery wherein they will be protected from all their delinquencies. Tony Blair came to Belfast to issue a stinging ultimatum to Sinn Féin-IRA to disarm or else; and then, with no sign of disarmament, he's now making further concessions to the Shinners over policing.
So why should Sinn Féin-IRA make concessions? There's no reason to. I wouldn't in their place. Why do the governments think they will? Did they not ransack Castlereagh Special Branch files, thereby compromising the security of the entire police force. And were they punished? No. Rewarded.
Now is perhaps not the time to go into the recent theft of files in Stormont, which precipitated the suspension of the Assembly. Yet no-one is seriously suggesting that a gang of Unionist thieves, led by that pair of swashbuckling Raffles, Sir Reg Empey and Lady Sylvia Herman, were responsible: though God knows, in this peace process, just about anything is possible.
Nonetheless, who really got politically punished for whatever criminality occurred at Stormont? Why, who else but the Unionists of course, with poor, doomed David Trimble having the carpet pulled from underneath him, to spare the governments the unpleasant duty of pulling it from under the Shinners.
So utterly doomed is David Trimble that the Assembly elections are going to have to be deferred, for fear of discovering what the unionist people think of these years of cowardice, appeasement and capitulation.
Meanwhile, in the Republic, we now have a government which effectively tolerates the existence of two armies in its jurisdiction. The Taoiseach has regularly met leaders of an illegal army whose arsenals - by the terms of this peace process - are now immune to interference from the State. So not merely is there a de facto authorisation of a second army in this Republic: the IRA's existence almost has a de jure status, and all to prevent it being "alienated".
The world of politics
Let it be alienated. The Provisional IRA is not going back to war; not unless it wishes to feel the warm kiss of Predator-launched missiles whistling over South Armagh. So, compel Sinn Féin finally to enter the real world of politics, the one in which if promises are kept there are rewards, and if they are broken there is punishment, a world in which there are no private armies, and no baseball bats at midnight.
And as for the arrogant imperialist fools in the Dáil who thought they could go over to Colombia to lord it legally over the mere natives, they have their show-business equivalents. You might possibly remember the contemptible Bring Them Home Concert last year, featuring the Donal Lunny, Frances Black, Sharon Shannon, and Philip King, which was demanding the unconditional release, without trial, of the Colombia Three.
That's the BTH faction. I belong to the LTR tendency. If the three were genuinely guilty of aiding a terrorist campaign which has murdered thousands, why then, it's simple: Let Them Rot.