Brian Cowen yesterday came up with the latest version of an old refrain: Hit me now with the peace process in my arms. If sceptics "were to rule the roost" on IRA decommissioning, he told Pat Kenny on Radio One, "it might as well not have happened at all."
Cowen's hasty intervention followed an interview with a writer, Kevin Toolis, who repeated some of the questions raised by unionists about the need to take on trust the finding of Gen John de Chastelain that the IRA's act of putting arms beyond use had been "significant". What did "significant" mean and how could the public judge when the size and location of the dump had not been revealed? Cowen was impatient with the questioning.
All of this, he said, had been set out in detailed legislation in both parliaments; the general's independence could not be questioned; he would have made clear to the IRA what was needed for its move to have been considered significant.
Bertie Ahern had already described decommissioning as the biggest breakthrough since the Provisional IRA's ceasefire. But when he was asked about the possibility of Sinn FΘin's having a role in government in the Republic, he said it could not be until the IRA had disbanded. Because there has been so little questioning - or scepticism - in the coverage of the week's events, he did not explain what would have to be done to show that dissolution had taken place. Instead of scepticism, there are raised hopes of a more peaceful island in the long run; and, in the short run, some intriguing but unexplored questions about the next general election.
Decommissioning, of course, was always in the IRA's hands. (The notion of Sinn FΘin leaders consulting the IRA suggested a new piece of theatre: We must be talking to ourselves.) But was the week's announcement more heavily influenced by the aftermath of the attacks on the United States, the embarrassment of the arrests in Colombia or Fianna Fβil's rediscovery of its antecedents in the reburial of IRA members executed in 1920? And to what extent is Fianna Fβil preparing the ground for a partnership which some in the party would find disadvantageous in their constituencies and others might not welcome for historical reasons?
If Ahern can claim credit for helping Sinn FΘin into office in Northern Ireland, can he reasonably object to their support in the Republic? Sinn FΘin leaders are well used to tactical manoeuvres. Of course, they make much of their opposition to some of Fianna Fβil's business connections and say support for FF is out of the question. But Sinn FΘin deftly opposes imperialism while calling on American aid and invoking US authority.
The week's good news is the Belfast Agreement may be on the way to becoming the Belfast Settlement, as Denis Bradley of Derry suggested on radio on Wednesday. But it will take longer - maybe much longer - than the public has been led to expect by the publicity.
David Trimble is clearly well pleased with the conclusion of a phase in the peace process which promises greater stability in the government of Northern Ireland, even if the power-sharing executive has a problem scraping through in the Assembly.
Ahern was in even more celebratory mood, taking every opportunity to remind audiences of "our success" as if he were one of the young lads who rode down the Falls Road waving a tricolour after the announcement of the first ceasefire. Ahern was to have been the first to address the Dβil on Wednesday in the series of leaders' statements on the start of decommissioning. At the last minute the Opposition leaders learned that the Taoiseach couldn't turn up: he was off meeting the Sinn FΘin leader instead. Members of the Opposition knew their place and realised that, of course, they - and the Dβil - must play second fiddle to the men of the moment, Adams and his colleagues.
The IRA announcement had been covered with breathless respect and without a hint of scepticism in the media. The Irish Independent revived a notorious headline, with a new twist: "Now it's payback time for republicans of the peace". And to ensure that "republicans of the peace" had a clear run, the broadcast media paid less attention than might have been expected to some related reports: the director of operations of the "Real IRA", Liam Campbell, became the first member of the organisation to have been convicted and sentenced: a reminder to the southern media that while loyalist violence might be the most obvious threat to stability, the "Real IRA", which claimed the bomb at Omagh, is still the most dangerous.
But, even more closely related to the IRA's announcement on decommissioning, Adams managed to slip in an admission that Niall Connolly, one of the those held in Colombia, had indeed represented Sinn FΘin in Cuba - contrary to the emphatic and repeated denials of the party.