And the threat of violence poisons politics. There can be no new beginning until this is ended, once and for all. Democrats, especially Unionists, will have little or no confidence in the Agreement and trust in Sinn F in unless decommissioning is delivered. But there are some signs of hope. The IRA doesn't come together to swap recipes and knitting patterns.
Any meeting is pretty difficult to organise.
We can assume that they met for a purpose. This larger Convention may have agreed to allow the smaller 20-strong IRA Executive to decide on decommissioning. And according to senior Government sources at Westminster, this is being interpreted as meaning that Adams and McGuinness could deliver on decommissioning. Thousands of people have risked their lives, many have died or been jailed to build up the IRA into the world's most effective and feared fascist terror group. Hard-faced volunteers don't buy the argument that they can always buy more arms.