The process of making Sinn Fein respectable proceeded at such a pace from the IRA ceasefire in the summer of 1994 to the time of writing (the following summer) that it is necessary to remind readers of the extent to which the Republicans were regarded as pariahs during the mid-eighties. The effects of the various broadcasting bans described earlier, the attempts to ‘cleanse the culture’ of Nationalist infections, all had their effect. The seventy-fifth anniversary of the 1916 rising was scarcely celebrated in the Republic lest it stir ancient emotions.
