The Shinners' new Boy Wonder, Belfast Lord Mayor Niall O Donnghaile, is the type of republican all Unionists should aspire to do business with.
Forget the 'wet behind the ears' jibes that he's had to endure in recent days. Niall is one of the most articulate republicans to emerge in the past decade.
I first met the Boy Wonder, O Donnghaile, when I did a feature on how the peace process was benefiting east Belfast's Short Strand, at one time nationalism's version of the loyalist Siege of Derry.
Unlike Limavady's Shinner Mayor Sean McGlinchey, brother of murdered INLA godfather, Mad Dog, young Niall has never served an apprentice in the Provos.
Even at the Short Strand meeting, I knew Niall would be the Great Green Hope of the modern republican movement.
Boy Wonder Niall is well named. O Donnghaile is Irish for Donnelly, and research says this means 'brown haired warrior'.
According to celtic folklore, his family is supposedly descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, the fifth century Irish king who kidnapped patron saint, Patrick, and brought him to the Emerald Isle.
Niall will be a magnificent ambassador for Belfast, and although he came from the Shinner Stormont Spin Shack, based on our extensive chat in the Short Strand, I firmly believe he is genuine when he says he will represent all sections of our capital city.
I am not a gambling man, but I would put heavy dosh that Niall will become one of the best Belfast establishment figures for a generation.
However, he needs to avoid key pitfalls – no draping yourself over rebel platforms to honour dead Provos; and don't invite the nutball representatives of foreign death gangs for coffee in your chambers.
I have listened to the anti-Sinn Féin rhetoric in my interviews with Oglaigh na hEireann. I have read the hardline views from people who participated in the recent Brendan Hughes Memorial debate in Belfast.
Hughes was a leading light in the 1980 Maze hunger strike, a former top Belfast IRA commander, who died totally disillusioned with Sinn Féin.
It, therefore, seems downright daft that with dynamic young blood like Boy Wonder Niall in the forefront, the Shinners opt for Mad Dog's relative in Limavady.
At first sight, the Shinners are using their Stormont and council poll triumphs to give a 'f*** you' salute to Unionists. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Dissident republicans still represent a real threat. With allegations former leading Provos have defected and set up a new dissident death squad, Sinn Féin needs urgent signs to keep its hardcore supporters from walking away from the movement.
2011 will host a series of commemorations to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike that saw Bobby Sands MP and nine other IRA and INLA Maze inmates starve themselves to death.
By the time the current five-year assembly term ends, it will be the centenary of the doomed Easter Rising. All of these will raise tensions in republicans.
With Sinn Féin now almost permanently entrench in the political middle ground, the republican leadership must pacify the hawks.
And what better tactic than bung a few ex-jailbirds into key posts. Imagery is vitally important to republican hardliners. If they see former gunmen and bombers flaunting mayoral or deputy mayoral chains about the North and South, that should keep nationalist hard-nuts in check.
But if Boy Wonder Niall is to build a springboard which could propel him into leadership, he must remember the old maxim – if you lie down with dogs, don't complain if you get up with fleas!
If he keeps his nose clean, he could well commemorate the centenary of the Tan War by becoming President of Sinn Féin O Donnghaile.
