Alone of Sinn Fein delegates at Hillsborough castle, Martin McGuinness, its chief negotiator, had reason to celebrate. Just as 78 hours of wrangling were coming to an end, he became a grandfather at the age of 49. Mr McGuiness might have had cause for cheer, but he looked as glum as the others gathered around the party president, Gerry Adams. Sinn Fein had lost the decommissioning argument, and they knew it. They fell out with the Irish government and the nationalist SDLP at Hillsborough, and were left in no doubt that Sinn Fein was isolated.
Easter is a special festival in the republican calendar.
Rallies remember 1916, when IRA volunteers were martyred fighting the British occupiers. So tomorrow was hardly the wisest deadline for Mo Mowlam, the Northern Ireland Secretary, to set for a deal on IRA arms. . It made movement by Sinn Fein difficult, and the party faces a tricky 10 days before the talks reconvene. No one, however, is better placed to switch approach, and turn a defeat into something it can sell to its grassroots as triumph. Sinn Fein will have to portray decommissioning as a magnanimous gesture, for it now has to come.