"These groups should listen to the voice of the people. Pack up and go away," he says.

Irony is obviously lost on the man. Pot, kettle, army council ...

His comments have come in the wake of a brutal killing in Derry which was shocking and indefensible.

But no more shocking and indefensible than so many, many previous brutal killings. Including, say, that of Robert McCartney.

Did the outraged voice of the people get listened to there?

Martin appears to think we've moved on a bit now.

"We have now come to a point of no return. These people (ie dissidents) now have choices to make. These small groups have reached a fork in the road. "

(Interesting overtones there of Tony Blair's "fork in the road" speech at the Harbour Commissioners' way back in October 2002.)

Martin adds: "For them (ie dissidents) the choice is clear, choose the peaceful and democratic road to a United Ireland — which is open to them — or they can choose to go down some sort of quasi-military cul-de-sac. There is no room for grey areas any longer."

Um, no room for grey areas any longer Martin?

Surely "some sort of quasi-military cul-de-sac" has to be a bit of a grey area?

The point is that terrorists, both republican and loyalists (and this includes the PIRA so-called army council, still intact), are quite happy living in their quasi-military cul-de-sac. Why wouldn't they be? The state tolerates them doing so.

We live in a place where action against terrorist groupings of all kinds mainly consists of occasional calls for them to realise that they've come to a fork in the road, it's time to move forward, to make the break with the past, blah, blah, blah.

No real action, however. Such as the authorities descending upon their respective quasi-military cul-de-sacs and redding out the lot of them.

Which is why heartrending scenes of distressed and grieving relatives will tragically remain with us.

Almost inevitably, no sooner had the deputy first minister/ former IRA commander issued his appeal (it can hardly be called a warning since the dire consequences of ending up in "some sort of quasi-military cul-de-sac" are unlikely to rattle the terror godfathers) than the dissidents had responded with derision.

Mr McGuinness's comments about a paramilitary grouping's need for public support will spark considerable contempt elsewhere.

The IRA he claimed: "was an army of the people — sustained by the people — supported by the people — and answerable to the people."

What he didn't say was that the IRA like all those other terror gangs still in our midst also murdered the people.

Proof perhaps that you can take the commander out of the quasi-military cul-de-sac. But you can't take the quasi-military cul-de-sac out of the deputy.