So the Provos have finally come good and "put their weapons beyond use". In other words some cement contractor has made a significant bit of NIO money by filling in holes in the ground.
The Provos' actions have to been seen as the final act of closure on mainstream Republicans' part to end 36 years of brutality and mayhem.
I, like many in the North, don't consider them heroes, I won't even thank them. The Provos have done something that should have been done many, many years ago.
But it is done and I am glad it's over. Let's hope that it's over for good.
I say this because the Unionists and Loyalists (what's the difference?) can't get their heads around the fact that yet again, Republicans have outmanoeuvred them.
The DUP are good. I have to give them that. Or then again they may just be slightly not in touch with reality.
They have spent the past number of days spouting complete nonsense across the media.
They don't believe the Provos – well fair enough – I wouldn't put my mortgage on the word of a terrorist. But that's why two churchmen of high regard and the decommissioning body were used for verification, as was the British and Irish, secret-but not secret enough estimates of the Provo arsenal.
It all tallied – what the General thought should be there was there.
The reality of this latest crying game from the DUP is that they aren't ready to share power with Catholics and Nationalists while they have a particular type of leadership. In fact they probably will never be really ready but we can hope.
The Provos have called the DUP's bluff. They (the DUP) will bleat on and on but they also like power and money and before too long they will take up their very well paid jobs up the hill at Stormont. They, like all the other band of 108, may start working for their money.
Every time I see a DUP press conference it reminds me of a scene from Julius Caesar – the one where the senators all say admiring things about the leader but at the same time hope, wish that he was out of the way.
The difference between the Romans and the DUP is that no one from the DUP's ranks has the guts or decency to give their leader his P45.
While some of the servants share in many of big Ian's well thought out and balanced political perceptions of Catholics and Nationalists, not to mention the anti-Christ known as Republicans – there will be some hope if and when he goes into retirement.
The DUP and their little cousins the Ulster Unionists have spent much time over the past number of weeks bleating on about loyalist poverty. It currently sits at around 47 per cent (Nationalist poverty sits at around 46 per cent – with Nationalists still less likely to get certain types of jobs, and I don't mean working for the Orange Order).
When the rest of the world welcomed what the Provos had done and viewed the North in a more positive manner, why oh why did the Loyalists and Unionists not attempt to act more positively. If they want more investment, more money and better opportunities they have to realise that they have their own part to play.
Nationalism and republicanism once more has been seen to lead the way in the North and across Ireland. It has its faults and failings but it continues to be seen as progressive.
The SDLP leader Mark Durkan and Sinn Féin's Pat Doherty attended a breakfast with Peter Hain and other key North of Ireland figures at the Labour Party Conference this week. They were well received as they should be and no doubt played significant roles in firming up their respective parties' positions with Labour figures.
There was at least one empty seat. That seat had been left empty by our very own MP Nigel Dodds. No doubt he was doing a good job on behalf of all of the people of North Belfast propping up his leader in meetings with the decommissioning body, smiling at the cameras and all looking smug.
What benefits does standing in the street with your leader, making his usual ravings, bring to the people of North Belfast and the North of Ireland?
No wonder Loyalists districts feel so isolated and low, they don't have effective leadership interested in pulling them up off their knees. Their representatives (not leaders) are more concerned with pushing each other out of the way to get into a camera shot, or proving who is the pettiest of them all by crying foul every time a nationalist moves.
Some hope for the future.
