'If it had been a woman speaking she would have been dismissed as menopausal." Thus a friend in Belfast, talking about Sir Ronnie Flanagan's extraordinary outburst, for which he has since apologised, in response to the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman's report on the Omagh bombing.
As Mr Chris McGimpsey remarked on Questions and Answers on Monday, this row will run and run. At first sight, the quarrel looks like an unmitigated political disaster, but it also presents opportunities. I'll return to these later but (given the season that's in it) allow me to digress for a moment.
For many women like myself, feminists of a certain age, one of the most compelling aspects of the row has been the contrasting styles of the two main actors. Mrs Nuala O'Loan - cool, articulate, steely and consistent in defending her report and her team.
Sir Ronnie - emotional to the point of hysteria, pleading with us to share his pain. Whether he will be able to recover his credibility and the methods used by the political establishment to help him, i.e. by attacking Mrs O'Loan ("politically naive, lacking in judgment, somewhat vindictive" and, of course, "an outsider") now constitute the most serious problem in dealing with the report itself.
The lot of the whistle-blower is not a happy one, particularly if she happens to be a woman. By coincidence, the publication of Mrs O'Loan's report came just after the humiliation of another woman in a similar position, but rather closer to the heart of British politics.
Ms Elizabeth Filkin was appointed as parliamentary commissioner at Westminster to investigate allegations of sleaze among MPs. She got up the noses of a lot of people, including the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr John Reid. The same kind of criticisms were levelled against her as we have heard about Mrs O'Loan. Now she has been forced out of the post and the job itself has been much diminished, so that her successor will have fewer resources and less power.
The first attacks on the Police Ombudsman focused - and this was cleverly planned - on the personal fallout from the report. The criticism of Sir Ronnie Flanagan was condemned as a vile smear on a decent, honest policeman, who has shown courage and fortitude in his leadership of the RUC. As importantly, he has accepted and helped to implement the Patten Report.
It is true Sir Ronnie has given sterling service to the people of Northern Ireland. We are all in his debt. But that does not put him beyond criticism, particularly on issues as serious as the Omagh bombing. There are other unsolved crimes - the murders of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson for example - that raise serious questions about the activities of the Special Branch and its place within the RUC. Part of the hostility between Mrs O'Loan and Sir Ronnie has to do with her insistence that these cases must be independently investigated.
The other immediate criticism of Mrs O'Loan's report was that it would cause distress to the families of the Omagh victims. This ignores the fact that the families continue to plead for the truth.
More than three years after the murder of their loved ones, they want to know why the perpetrators of this atrocity have not been brought to justice. What has happened to the investigation, on both sides of the Border? Now they may get some answers.
The more political response to the Police Ombudsman's report is that it deals another blow to the peace process, just when things were beginning to go smoothly. The fear is that it will be used by both the anti-agreement Unionists and Sinn FΘin for their own ends. The depth of Sir Ronnie Flanagan's sense of hurt unsettle unionist supporters of the agreement.
That is why the comments of Mr Peter Mandelson and others about Mrs O'Loan are so dangerous. The office of Police Ombudsman was set up to ensure police accountability in Northern Ireland and to make the operations of the force more transparent.
It was part of the grand plan laid out in the Patten Report, to make the police in Northern Ireland more acceptable to the nationalist community, and thus encourage young Catholics to join. That is already happening. Changes are being made and this is happening through dialogue.
On the very day that Mrs O'Loan published her report, the new Policing Board agreed the design for insignia for the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Admittedly it is a bit overcrowded with symbols, but so what? There is one step which could do more than anything else to resolve this quarrel. Sinn FΘin has resisted all appeals to join the Policing Board on the grounds that the provisions governing the Police Service of Northern Ireland fall short of the full Patten. It has cited, as one of it main concerns, the failure to implement the recommendations about integrating the Special Branch much more firmly into the police service.
This is the issue at the heart of the report on the Omagh bombing. Mrs O' Loan and her team of investigators have taken their job extremely seriously. They have demonstrated that the appointment of the Police Ombudsman was not an empty gesture. Mrs O'Loan has shown great courage in her commitment to achieving a new beginning to policing in Northern Ireland. Sinn FΘin could acknowledge the importance of what she has done by taking its seats on the Policing Board. That would be a real contribution to peace and goodwill that would last long after Christmas.