Hard on last month's item on the IRA announcement that it was about to decommission its arms, came September's welcome verification that the actual deed had taken place, witnessed by retired Canadian General John de Chastelain, other members of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, and two clergymen, one a Methodist, the other a Catholic.

Predictably true to form, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Ian Paisley, himself a clergyman, denounced the two clerical witnesses as hand-picked by the IRA and Sinn Fein, the republican political party which has representatives elected to three, repeat three, parliaments, Stormont, Westminster, and Dublin.

What would it take to convince Ian and his unionist followers that armaments had been destroyed, that independent witnesses had verified their destruction, and that the entire process was credible?

Unfortunately, nothing would. As the leader of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, commented: "If the IRA stripped naked in front of Stormont, decommissioned their weapons and then committed hara-kiri, unionists would still not believe them."

Set in his ways, intractable, aging, and unable to accept that time and tide have turned against him, Paisley keeps repeating the mantra that he has made his own, "No, no, a thousand times no!" whenever he is faced with the prospect of peace, power-sharing, and the inevitability of an all-Ireland polity.

He is the ultimate no-man. The irony is that his refrain is lifted holus bolus from an old-time music hall ditty. Given his record, it could also serve as his political epitaph.

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