Although the latest message from the IRA is particularly truculent in tone, it is important to remember that previous statements from the same source have regularly proved to be unreliable in many key respects.
In other words, when attempting to assess the IRA's position, it is wiser to examine what the organisation does rather than what it says.
The IRA statement said that a crisis had been created through the activities of both the "British military establishment" and loyalist paramilitary groups, as well as the failure of unionists to embrace change.
At no stage was there any indication that republicans had ever failed to live up to their own responsibilities.
It is therefore reasonable to examine the credibility of the IRA's record since its first ceasefire in 1994.
A matter of weeks after the introduction of what was supposed to be a complete cessation, IRA gunmen shot dead a Catholic postman, Frank Kerr, during an armed robbery in Newry, Co Down.
Republicans initially denied any link with the murder but a later statement admitted that IRA members had carried out the raid without the sanction of the republican leadership.
In 1996 IRA gunmen shot dead Garda Jerry McCabe during another attempted robbery in Adare, Co Limerick.
An immediate IRA statement denied that the organisation was linked to the murder. A second statement later the same year accepted that IRA men were involved, although it was suggested they were acting without authority. Republicans are now claiming the individuals convicted of the killing as recognised IRA members who deserve to be released from jail under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
In October 2000 Joseph O'Connor was shot dead in the strongly republican Ballymurphy district of west Belfast. The IRA again denied involvement, a claim treated with derision by people in the area.
Despite further denials the IRA is also known to have been behind a series of killings in Belfast attributed to group calling itself Direct Action Against Drugs.
Also in 2000, three men who said in court that they were IRA members were convicted on gun-smuggling charges in Florida. One of the weapons they sent back to Ireland was later found in the possession of a Sinn Féin member in Co Cork, who was also jailed earlier this year.
Three suspected IRA members are presently on trial in Columbia, accused of providing training for Farc guerrillas there. Sinn Féin at first categorically denied that one of the men was the party's official representative in Cuba, only to later admit that this was indeed the case.
All these well documented events helped to create the climate in which allegations of IRA involvement in intelligence-gathering operations in both Castlereagh and Stormont over the last year would be widely believed.
Political criticism can certainly be levelled at unionists, while in a very different way loyalist paramilitary groups have undoubtedly set out to pursue a evil agenda.
It is even possible, given the lessons of history, that British agents have again played a malign role in recent events.
However, rather than condemning everyone else, the IRA should accept its share of the blame for the predicament in which we find ourselves today and start to take the public steps which it must know are necessary if a solution is to be found.
Despite the statement on Wednesday night, there is still good reason to believe that progress is possible in the short term.
