If it is true that God hates a coward then he must be apoplectic at the moment with our two republican parties, Fianna Fail and Sinn Féin.
I am also full of admiration for those who put themselves forward for politics.
I can admire it, but personally I could never have settled for the party line. I would never have had the patience.
More importantly, I would never have had the belief in the process.
Yet, like many others, I have a fascination with politics, particularly with Irish politics. Either a strange gene or some unconscious memory possesses many of us and sends us forth, like Joyce's Stephen Dedalus "to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race".
Some of that "uncreated conscience" was visible in the school children who walked from their classrooms to take part in the anti-war demonstrations during the last few weeks.
Not all the motivation was pure or mature, but many parents will testify that apathy is a modern curse visited on their children and any expression of interest, flawed or tarnished, is to be welcomed.
Some of the anger and protest was directed at the Irish government and surely they had a greater responsibility and care for their people than the cowardly and tepid response they settled on about the use of Shannon Airport as a stopover for US military flights.
It is no great secret that the bulk of politicians who make up the Irish government think that the right wing of the Republican Party represented by George Bush is a significant danger to the world.
Ireland is indebted to America, as it is to us, but obsequiousness is no substitute for friendship.
Even a diplomatic protest would have been more dignified than the 'see no evil, hear no evil' response. Friendship that cannot survive disagreement is not friendship at all.
There was also some of the Dedalus spirit in the young, fresh faces at the ard feis at the weekend. Work brings its own reward.
Sinn Féin is now the envy of all the other political parties on this island. The level of articulacy, passion and belief is impressive, but also somewhat frightening.
The intensity and the unwavering certitude startles and unnerves those who are not of the 'family'.
It even disturbs many who were once the backbone of the 'family'. Sinn Féin, with its youthful legions, is on a mission that is close to the hearts and dreams of many others who identify with Irishness.
And yet they scare many of the same people who share their dream. At times they fail to grasp that there are fine lines between arrogance, zeal and fanaticism.
To have found a mission and purpose in life is a fine thing in itself but, if not leavened by doubt, it runs the risk of becoming self-righteous.
It is no accident that the greatest proponents of American righteousness are descended from a Protestant Calvinism that views wealth as tangible evidence of being numbered among the elect.
It is more than ironic if republicanism in Ireland views and defines only those fully committed to the SF 'project' as fully Irish.
Normally you would look to the leadership of a political party to bring experience to the inexperience of youth and bring balance and flexibility to the rigidity of the extreme.
To be fair to the Sinn Féin leadership, they often do just that. On this occasion they were woeful. On the first glimpse of dissention among the delegates about their future in policing they ran for cover. They ran to hide under the skirt tails of an election and the cover of a mythical debate.
The substance and the rhetoric of the policing debate have long since bored the audience and the only ones who hear the arguments are the debaters themselves.
The debate is over and republicans must face down their ghosts, just as the rest of us have had to do.
To bring policing into an election now is verging on political madness. It will make unionism more obdurate, it will disgust nationalism, it might backfire on Sinn Féin and it may force the two governments to pull the polls and the institutions and force us all to wander in the desert for a few years.
Many commentators believe the dissension was stage-managed to gain Sinn Féin some obtuse advantage in the days leading to the publication of the Hillsborough deal. That may or may not be so, but either way it is still cowardly and dangerous.
There is another way – a more mature, astute and wholesome way.
If Sinn Féin can't see it and understand it, then they should look to the Gods.
The Greeks had a story that Care was once crossing a river.
She picked up some clay and began to shape it.
Jupiter passed by and Care asked him to grant some spirit to what she had shaped, which he gladly did. Both then began to dispute about which of their names should be bestowed upon the creature.
Earth came by and desired that her name be conferred upon the creature since she had furnished it with part of her body.
They asked Saturn to be their arbiter and he made the decision: "Since you, Jupiter, have given its spirit, you shall receive that spirit at its death; and since you, Earth, have given its body, you shall receive its body. But since Care first shaped this creature, she shall possess it as long as it lives".
The political parties can choose which of the Gods they wish to be, but none of them have the right to neglect Care.
Fianna Fail has been pretty spineless about the Iraq war. Hopefully they will be somewhat more courageous when it comes to bringing an end to our war.
They would be better to let us wander in the desert for a few years than allow us to go into an election with policing unresolved.
