Who the bloody hell started the Troubles?
That's the taboo question no-one wants to ask, or even answer, as this month marks the 40th anniversary of the start of a conflict which claimed over 3,000 lives.
Blame for the Troubles lies fairly and squarely at the steps of the North's so-called Christian Churches.
Like Pontius Pilate in Biblical times, they washed their hands of community strife. Okay, so a few individual clerics may have tried to buck the trend with some well-meaning words and acts.
Unionists blame the Civil Rights Movement for being hijacked by militant republicans.
Nationalists point the finger at the Orange Right-wing which dominated Stormont politics since the forming of the Northern state.
While most blame the flames of sectarianism, what about the poverty which many working – and even middle class – Catholics and Protestants found themselves wallowing in during 1969?
While Catholic chapels and cathedrals were bathed in luxury, thousands of ordinary worshippers in Belfast, the Bogside and across the North could not even take a dump in an inside loo.
Millions were poured into huge Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian buildings by the Unionist aristocratic ruling families as working class Protestants had to carry their slop buckets to be emptied at the bottom of fields.
If the respective Christian church leaderships had paid more attention to the physical needs of their flocks, those parishioners would not have fallen prey to the venomous bile of the death squads.
The Churches missed a brilliant opportunity for outreach in 1969. It was a significant religious date as that year marked the 110th anniversary of the famous 1859 Spiritual Revival in geographical Ulster.
Look at the tens of millions of pounds which the Catholic Church has, not just in Ireland, but across the globe.
The Catholic clergy could have spearheaded a programme of housing rebuilding. It had the dosh to pay for such schemes to help the poor and needy.
The same situation applied to the rich Protestant denominations. But did these clergy follow the example of Christ and go across the North to help those less well off? Not a chance.
Many clerics turned a blind eye and hid out in their manses, rectories, and parochial houses while their flocks were being attacked. Those same flocks then began attacking those they saw as 'the enemy'.
With many mainstream clerics hiding their heads in the political sands, it paved the way for fundamentalist preachers on both sides to fill the religious vacuum.
How many people were murdered, maimed, injured or jailed because they listened to a cleric who convinced them they were doing 'The Lord's Work'?
Ironically, memories of the Great Revival are returning this year as 2009 marks the 150th anniversary.
The message to today's Christian Churches is simple – for the sake of peace, don't balls it up this time.
Meanwhile, are the Shinners stupid, or have they just gone completely daft?
Okay, you were smart enough to recognise the need for two separate Sinn Féin parties – one for the North, the other south of the border.
But why make losing MEP Mary Lou McDonald your boss in the South?
What about all the terrific work Dáil Shinner chief Caoimhin O Caolain has achieved since he became a TD?
And as for Northern Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams needs to hang on until the 2011 Assembly poll when North Antrim boy wonder Daithi McKay can become President with Mid Ulster blonde bombshell Michelle O'Neill as his deputy.
