TWO separate, but linked, statements were issued yesterday by ,the IRA. The first formal communication, in the name of P.O'Neill, denied any involvement in the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe in Co Limerick.
The second said the leadership was studying the terms for party negotiations which are due to open in Belfast on Monday.
Both were designed to leave the door open for Sinn Fein's eventual involvement in all party talks. And both reflected the enormous pressure, both internally and externally, that the republican movement has come under since Sinn Fein took 15 per cent of the vote in lasts week's Northern elections.
Having campaigned on a platform of "peace" and a negotiated settlement, Sinn Fein is now exposed to attack from all quarters' because of the absence of an IRA ceasefire.
No doubt Gerry Adams has made that point emphatically to the hard men of the military wing. But they have not listened so far. And Mr Adams may well be reduced to protesting outside the negotiations venue on Monday.
The prospect of Sinn Fein joining the talks at an early stage - if not on Monday - was given credence by the IRA statement issued yesterday to the BBC in Belfast. That informal statement actively encouraged expectations of a ceasefire.
It laid particular emphasis on the fact that the arrangements for talks, agreed between the two governments, were being actively considered. Along with the special role of Senator George Mitchell.
It might be just another ploy to string the media along and to keep the focus on Sinn Fein. But that is unlikely.
For the Sinn Fein president has as much to lose as any other politician in this process. He and his closest colleagues have lifted Sinn Fein from pariah status to that of a semi constitutional party, with access to the airwaves and to senior levels of government. But it could all be blown away by blind, militaristic behaviour.
For no government can permit Sinn Fein to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
Mr Adams and his supporters do not seem to appreciate the risks that have been taken, particularly by John Hume and the SDLP, to provide them with a place at the talks.
And the same holds true for John Bruton and Dick Spring, whose Southern supporters have little or no tolerance for paramilitary activities.
The murder of Det Garda McCabe could yet tip the peace process into crisis. In spite of a rushed statement by "P. O'Neill" that there was "absolutely no involvement by IRA members or units" in the vicious killing, the Garda authorities were not convinced.
And, at the scene, members of the Garda insisted that local members of the IRA were directly implicated in the murder.
There was as a understandable reluctance by the Government to jump to conclusions in such fraught circumstances. Especially when an IRA unit might have decided on a freelance operation.
To formally identify the IRA as the culprits would have made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Government to hold the door open to inclusive negotiations involving Sinn Fein. Four years of political work by three governments, by Mr Hume and by President Clinton, would be placed in jeopardy.
The crisis was not quite on a par with that which faced John Major in the aftermath of the Canary Wharf bombing in London. But it had many of the same ingredients and, critically for a Fine Gael led Government, a member of the security forces had been killed.
Fianna Fail was also anxious that the IRA statement should be taken at face value. Sinn Fein's entry into all party talks was of primary concern. And, following a meeting between senior party representatives and Sinn Fein officials at Leinster House, the denial by the IRA was accepted.
Pressure was also mounting on Sinn Fein through a BBC examination of the paramilitary backgrounds of six party members elected last week. The "Chinese wall" between Sinn Fein and the ,IRA was in danger of tearing.
On the military side, the arrest of five people - four of them in south Armagh in connection with the Canary Wharf bombing, provided a clear signal of the British government's determination that the rule of law would prevail.
Another 25 years of violence ,was the bleak alternative being offered to the IRA if it refused to allow Sinn Fein to participate in all party talks and in a democratic, political settlement. The days of the Armalite and the ballot box may be numbered.
