It’s all words and no actions

SO THERE we were, one week after the historic IRA stand-down, anticipating an act of decommissioning any second and what happens? Up pops Jim Monaghan with Charlie Bird on the six o’clock news.

In an instant the entire body politic on this island - with the possible exception of Sinn Féin - did the human equivalent of Tweetie Bird’s “I thought I saw a puddy cat” phrase.

On beaches from Kerry to Australia members of the Cabinet choked on their drinks as reality hit home: “I did see a puddy cat.”