P O’Neill must be placated at all costs

IF THE IRA didn’t exist, Sinn Féin would have to invent it. For the military wing is the alter ego of the republican body politic.

It is by turns hard man, disembodied ghost and paymaster, ensuring that any soothing noises made by its well-dressed, respectable brother are to be taken in context.

And that context is a 32-county republic which can only be established by force or, better still, by stealth.