Still, two months on, Sinn Fein’s lack of remorse over the IRA funeral hypocrisy is an enduring problem

And, to be clear, they cannot do so.

As Sinn Fein never tires of reminding people, there is no leader of Northern Ireland. The leader and deputy first leader have the same legal powers, a system that exists in barely any other government on Earth. There is good reason why it rarely exists: every method of ruling a society has to have a hierarchy, with a single decisive position at the top so that the most senior voice prevails if everyone else is split.

In NI, there are two such leaders.

The funeral of Bobby Storey at the end of June was a grievous breach of the lockdown restrictions that the people of Northern Ireland have overwhelmingly accepted over the preceding three months. The crowds were huge, and Sinn Fein leaders were at the helm of them.

But worse than the fact of such a massive breach, which was bad enough, was that SF had been the most militant about lockdown, and most sanctimonious. They relentlessly criticised the UK for having a negligent approach to deaths. They insisted on a Covid response that mirrored Ireland, and they got their way on that. They delayed on opening cemeteries.

For Michelle O’Neill then to have been at such a breach, when other obedient folk had missed funerals on her orders, was an outrage. Afterwards, she was sour and unrepentant and showed her unfitness for high office.

Despite all this, SF has been to the fore of criticising the much less serious Golf Society gathering in Galway.

Arlene Foster has been restrained and dignified amidst this appalling saga. Now (see page 19) she is reiterating that it would help if SF acknowledged its wrongdoing, which has caused such lasting ill will two months later.

The DUP leader is right about that although the problem of an emboldened SF was not helped by the rush back to Stormont in January, after republicans had kept it down since 2017.

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