Terrific piece by Ruth Dudley Edwards in the Financial Times pointing out that the Northern Ireland ‘peace process’ was based on suspension of disbelief by the British, Irish and US administrations. They chose to believe that there was a Chinese wall between the terrorists of the IRA and the leaders of Sinn Fein, whereas in fact no such division ever existed. (‘Naive Idiot’ was the code phrase for Blair found in secret Sinn Fein documents during a security raid in 2002.)

The simple truth that is emerging, even in the US, is that the IRA, which is inextricably linked with Sinn Fein, has grown into one of the richest and most sophisticated criminal organisations in Europe, with tentacles extending to the US and Colombia. Its ultimate ambition is to take power in the Republic, and to this end it funds a huge army of Sinn Fein activists. It has planted sleepers in politics, the media, the law and business. It is using money obtained by criminal means to buy up legitimate businesses (it is now the biggest pub owner in Ireland) and it is replicating northern ghettoes in some southern inner cities.

Yet Blair, who is terrified of a bomb during his election campaign, and Ahern, who follows his lead, continue to talk to Adams and to bleat about inclusivity and the need to revitalise the peace process. If they refuse to face reality, there is a real danger that should Sinn Fein pretend to split from the IRA, they will go along with another disastrous fiction.

One of the few good things about the Bush regime is that it never fell for the proposition that Gerry Adams was a light-skinned Mandela.