The shadowy world of Northern Ireland politics throws up strange echoes and reflections. We had the phrase "the Green Book" being used about the collection of Government documents which included the leaked McAleese memoranda. But the Green Book is also the name for the manual given to IRA volunteers. It should be stressed there is no connection between the two volumes.
Insiders call the Government's Green Book "The Box". Ironically, RUC members refer informally to Britain's MI5 as "The Box". Inevitably MI5 has come under suspicion as a possible source of at least some of the leaks but, before the conspiracy theorists get to work, it should be pointed out that nobody has come up with concrete evidence of this.
Whatever the source or sources, there is agreement on the nationalist side that the leaks are damaging, or at least unhelpful, to the peace process. The contents of the memoranda are not particularly destructive, but the fact that their contents were disclosed has caused considerable concern.
As the world now knows, the Department of Foreign Affairs sends out "travellers" to meet people on both sides in the North to discuss the situation and report back. The civil servant who met Ms Brid Rodgers of the SDLP would presumably come into this category.
Senior political sources said the extent of the damage done by the leaks would only emerge in time when the "travellers" took to the road again and met their contacts. With the Stormont talks process up and running, or at least meandering along, there is not the same need for travelling these days. All you need to do is call someone aside at Castle Buildings for a cup of coffee or a chat.
Most of the Department's contacts are on the nationalist side, specifically SDLP and Sinn Fein. The Democratic Unionist Party does not talk to Iveagh House "travellers". The Ulster Unionist Party does, but for the purpose of sending messages about its views and feelings, rather than imparting information.
Senior UUP sources said there had been some "winding up" among party colleagues about the potential embarrassment of being named in an Irish Government memo. But these sources are not greatly concerned about such revelations: "Whoever leaked this stuff does not have the agenda of trying to embarrass unionists."
Nationalist sources were more concerned. Some of them, perhaps naively, did not realise the information would be so widely circulated. They believed it was kept in a tight circle in Iveagh House and had no idea the Department of the Taoiseach would also have access.
Some of this information would be extremely sensitive, and disclosure could endanger people's lives, nationalist sources said. However, nothing revealed so far came into this category, and Government insiders said the documents from 1994, which were made available to the Sunday Independent but not published, were not especially sensitive either.
However, information which was circulating at the time of Drumcree last year is on file, and its release would seriously undermine the confidence of Northern nationalists and republicans in the Irish Government.
Some items in the memoranda read like tittle-tattle, but Government insiders defended the practice of recording such apparently minor details.
"It's all part of a jigsaw."
The good news for Government contacts in the North is that "really sensitive papers" are not included in the "Green Book" or "Box" circulated each week. It is likely there will be further restrictions on the flow of information in future. Openness, transparency and accountability can go too far, it seems.