The Shinners are in a right pickle over making murderer Mary McArdle a Stormont adviser.
But the hard reality was they had no choice but to put convicted killer McArdle in such a senior position.
Sinn Féin has found itself facing a political Titanic. In its bid to oust Robbo's DUP as the top party at Stormont, the republican movement had to entrench itself in the Catholic middle class middle ground, turf normally held by the SDLP.
By doing so, it endured the wrath of former IRA prisoners, which next to the Provos' ruling Army Council, is the most powerful republican lobby both sides of the border.
To all right-thinking nationalists – plus the entire pro-Union community – this appointment was a kick in the stomach for human decency. But to the Army Council and the Shinner top cats, it made perfect tactical sense.
Sinn Féin has a dilemma – to progress the peace process in the next Stormont term without provoking mass defections to dissident death squads.
Politically, Sinn Féin's strategy has buried dissident candidates without trace. Militarily, the dissidents steadily continue to gain ground.
Allegations abound that Catholic Omagh cop Ronan Kerr was killed by disaffected Provos, not by newly recruited non-IRA dissidents.
Sinn Féin cannot afford the embarrassment of former experienced Provos going 'back to war' under another name. And the only tactic to prevent this is to place killers like McArdle in key posts.
When you view her selection from a Provo perspective, Sinn Féin is taking the same stance as the Real IRA after the 1998 Omagh massacre which killed 31 people, including unborn twins.
Unlike the fringe Irish People's Liberation Organisation when it had its violent tiff with the Provos in the 1990s, the Real IRA did not disband after Omagh. It endured the decent community's rage, battened down its terrorist hatches, and simply waited for the political storm to blow itself out.
And the Shinners will do the same over McArdle's appointment, so Ireland's law-abiding community better get used to the idea of convicted bombers, gunmen and killers in the corridors of power on the Emerald Isle.
The most the family of McArdle's victim can hope for is that she is quietly sidelined into another post. For Sinn Féin to sack her would provoke a backlash among hardline republicans and ex-jailbirds, especially as this year marks the 30th anniversary commemorations of the hunger strikes.
Shinner spin docs would have a field day if a Unionist MLA or minister put a convicted loyalist killer into the role of their political adviser or research assistant.
The balance for Sinn Féin is which former Provos jailbirds or convicted killers to puts where, versus keeping hardnuts in line.
Certain murders in the Troubles sparked a tidal wave of condemnation, and one was McArdle's hand in the 1984 killing of Mary Travers, a young teacher leaving Mass. In future, Sinn Féin needs to carefully select which ex-prisoners it sends to specific posts, not on the basis of their professional merits, but on the potential backlash.
To fully understand this outrage let me put it like this – how would Sinn Féin voters feel if a former Shankill Butcher became a political adviser to First Minister Robbo?
Time for the Assembly's Minister For Fun Ni Chuilin to give McArdle her P45 and replace her with a less contentious jailbird.
