So Sinn Féin is vehemently denying IRA involvement in the murder of Kevin McGuigan and is railing against "unhelpful and unwelcome speculation".
Anybody who gives a shred of credibility to anything the party says following a shooting in a republican area is deaf, dumb and blind to the reality of life here since the IRA's first ceasefire two decades ago.
This isn't an anti-republican position. The greatest disbelief at the Provos insisting they'd no hand in the McGuigan murder is found in the Short Strand and Markets.
No wonder Alex Maskey and Niall O Donnghaile preferred to hold their press conference about the killing in the safer grounds of Belfast City Hall rather than in the Strand where the victim's friends and family could challenge them.
Sinn Féin has called on the local community to assist the police investigation. The same meaningless mantra was repeated after the murder of Robert McCartney. Its sincerity was reflected by the reality that of the 70 people in Magennis's bar that night, none saw a thing. They were all in the toilet or on their phones.
And Sinn Féin representatives latest air of injured innocence and outrage at the IRA even been accused is nothing new. The denials have been around as long as the killings.
In November 1994, just two months after the ceasefire, the IRA shot dead post worker Frank Kerr during a robbery in Newry. Gerry Adams accused those pointing the finger at the Provos of "being engaged in a transparent attempt to damage the peace process".
His statement wasn't withdrawn, even after the IRA eventually admitted responsibility. Then there was the Columbia Three who were just there on bird-watching duties and were unconnected to Sinn Féin.
Turned out James Monaghan had been on the party's ard chomhairle, Martin McAuley a recent director of elections in Upper Bann, and Niall Connolly was Sinn Féin's man in Havana.
Similar denials were made about the Northern bank robbery, Castlereagh break-in, and Florida gun-running. All were exposed later as a tissue of lies. There was Robert McCartney, Andrew Kearney, Joe O'Connor, Charles Bennett and a host of others.
"Internal house-keeping" was how Mo Mowlam dismissed the fate of Bennett, a 22-year-old taxi-driver found murdered in west Belfast with his hands tied behind his back and a pillowcase over his head in 1999.
The present Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, won't be so foolish as to repeat Mowlam's phrase but that's still the thinking in state circles today.
Little importance is attached to an act of violence by loyalist or mainstream republicans so long as they're not endangering the peace process. So the Provos can get away with killing a Catholic civilian but not a cop.
Peter Robinson warned of "repercussions" if IRA involvement was established by police. It was hardly tough talking by DUP standards.
And, call me a cynic, but I just can't see the PSNI ever blaming the IRA for this murder. At most, a fudge will be agreed with blame attributed to "ex-members".
Kevin McGuigan's life is of no value to anybody who walks the corridor of power. His murder won't in the slightest impinge on our political process. Dead working-class citizens don't count – whatever their religion.
