Rarely has there been a more ridiculous spectacle than that of Gerry Kelly standing outside Sinn Féin headquarters in Belfast shouting that the IRA doesn't exist.
Maybe the party thought fielding Kelly in the wake of the PSNI's statement that the Provos remained alive and kicking was a smart move. He has a tough, no-nonsense style ideal for those kind of situations.
Not this time. Kelly looked like a right eejit. Notwithstanding that a man's murder was at the heart of the matter, this was clear-cut comedy.
Speculation that the IRA still existed was "unhelpful", he thundered. When that didn't shut up one journalist, he insisted excitedly: "The IRA does not exist. The IRA does not exist. .. it put out a statement in 2005."
You'd have to be intellectually challenged to base your views on what is, and what isn't, accurate based on an IRA statement.
The Provos can be as trusted with the truth as Tony Blair in the lead-up to the Iraq war. Deceit and duplicity are second nature.
Paul Quinn's murder, the Castlereagh break-in, Florida gun-running, Northern Bank robbery- there's an endless list of incidents they say they weren't involved in. Oh and Gerry Adams was never in the IRA and Martin McGuinness left in 1974.
Last Thursday, Det Supt Kevin Geddes in a few seconds torpedoed the tissue of lies that the IRA wound up a decade ago.
The Provos have certainly no desire to kill British soldiers and police officers or blow up town centres. They've genuinely given up their efforts to force a British withdrawal and Irish unity from the barrel of a gun.
But they still continue to exist and function. And if their control is substantially challenged, they'll strike back. Jock Davison's murder in May shook them.
The scary spectre emerged that his killing mightn't be the last, that others with historical grievances against senior IRA figures would now be encouraged to wreak vengeance.
The Provos couldn't run the risk of copycat executions. The man they believed had executed Jock had to be punished.
The week before Kevin McGuigan's murder, the little known Action Against Drugs (AAD) went public with a threat against Jock's killers. Retrospectively, it smacks of carefully choreographed, scene-setting stuff.
This self-styled group may well soon issue a claim of responsibility for the killing. Nobody with a titter of wit should give it any credibility even if Gerry Kelly repeats it at the top of his voice outside Connolly House.
AAD can allege ad infinitum that it's entirely separate from the Provos but logic dictates that, on this one, the IRA is pulling the strings.
The PSNI says it doesn't know whether the murder was "sanctioned at a command level or not" by the Provos. That's an implicit admission that the organisation's structures continue to function.
I suspect that the increasing lack of public faith in the entire criminal justice system forced the PSNI to be so brutally honest. And the recent criticism of its record by Robert McCartney's sister, Catherine, certainly stung.
London and Dublin have, of course, long turned a blind eye to what the IRA gets up to for the sake of the peace process. And since they ascended to power in Stormont, the DUP has followed suit.
With calls for more updates, and further discussion of the IRA allegations, the party is signalling it has no appetite to take action. The Provos are fortunate that so many here have a stake in continuing with the grotesque political pantomime that passes for democracy.
