Wasn't last Saturday a shock? There we were, convinced that one thing only was preventing the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and that thing was the IRA.
Since unionists had suffered so much over the years, it was natural they should suspect the IRA's intentions. So the only way to allay those suspicions and transform the situation entirely was for that organisation to pack up, retire and quit the scene.
Mind you, some people said they'd heard that 'transform the situation' phrase before.
They claimed they'd heard it after the original IRA ceasefire, when unionist leaders called for the ceasefire to be declared permanent. Others remembered it being linked with the IRA saying the war was over.
Others again said they remembered it being used in connection with an end to punishment beatings; others to the disbandment of the IRA; others to Sinn Féin joining the policing boards; and others said they remembered it being used in connection with every single one of those issues.
So maybe for the people with good memories, Saturday wasn't such a shock. But it gave the rest of us a gunk. Here we'd been led to believe that when the decommissioning mountain had been climbed, we'd all be safe on sunny upland plains.
Alas no. On Saturday the bear went over the mountain and what do you think he saw? He saw another mountain called Accountability.
So what now? Well, it's clear that Sinn Féin is ready to grit its teeth and attempt yet again to accommodate the DUP. There seems to be no demand of unionism, no matter how outrageous or irrational, which they aren't prepared to address.
That's not the question. The question is, how does the DUP get away with this serial mountain invention? Surely there are unionists out there who want to say 'Hold on – this is what we've always demanded and now we have it. Let's accept it, sit down and sort this thing out'?
Well there are. The Rev Ken Newell, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, is one such. On BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence programme, he said he didn't understand why the DUP couldn't now engage in face-to-face discussions with Sinn Féin.
A cause for celebration, then. A Protestant Church leader, unionist in allegiance, prepared to point the finger and apportion blame where it belongs – with the DUP.
Unfortunately, Mr Newell had hardly finished talking when Archbishop Lord Eames came on. He's the leader of the Church of Ireland and the interviewer, William Crawley, wanted to know if he also thought it was time for the DUP to engage in face-to-face discussions with republicans.
To which the leader of the Church of Ireland replied: "Let's recognise the sensitivities of what's happening at the moment."
So young Mr Crawley swallowed and asked the question again. Was it time for the DUP to engage in face-to-face discussions with Sinn Féin? To which the leader of the Church of Ireland replied: "There may well be a case for that, but I am a realist. We mustn't play with words on this, William."
I can't remember if Mr Crawley asked the question a third time, but I do remember he didn't swear and bang the table at the Lord Archbishop's non-answer. I thought that showed commendable restraint, because at home I was doing a fair bit of swearing and banging myself.
How deplorable, depressing, damnable, I roared, that the Lord Archbishop couldn't bring himself to answer a simple question and give the obvious answer: "Yes, of course the DUP should be talking to Sinn Féin, it should have done it years ago, and it should definitely be doing it now if it has an ounce of integrity."
On mature reflection, of course, I can see there may have been a reason for the Lord Archbishop's coyness. Is it possible that, down all the years, the Lord Archbishop himself has never sat down and talked with republicans? If so, he could hardly start castigating Paisley for following suit.
But one thing is clear. On Saturday, having established themselves in the eyes of unionism as the people who brought the IRA to heel, the DUP is now bending itself to cut back on nationalist influence at every turn in the new dispensation – in the role of Deputy First Minister, in the role of executive ministers, in north-south bodies, in policing and justice.
And in that task of hobbling Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the nationalist people, most of respectable unionism supports Paisley and his henchmen.
