Around Christmas you would send seasonal greetings to all volunteers and maybe even announce a surprise short ceasefire. Any respite from your terror was welcome, but then your New Year message would state the war was on again and would not be stopped until the Brits were driven from our shores.

Life has moved on here in the past year at an incredible pace, so much so that it seems to me that you, P O'Neill, are in line for a P45. I am writing to you to ask for one final favour. One last P O'Neill statement. And this is what virtually everyone I know would like it to say ...

"The Army Council of Óglaigh na hÉireann, having already accepted a complete cessation of its activities and the decommissioning of all weaponry, now announces its total disbandment as of midnight.

"It sees no purpose in continuing to exist when an acceptable democratic process has been established at Stormont by all the principal political parties and especially in the light of the transfer of justice and policing powers to local control."

Now I'm sure, if you could be persuaded to go down this road, you might wish to gild the statement with a few complimentary words about the past service of your volunteers. While quite a lot of people will find that gratuitously offensive, most might be willing to let bygones be bygones, so long as your statement indicates unequivocally that you and those volunteers are all redundant or retired and, as a consequence, we are highly unlikely to ever hear from P O'Neill again.

Down the years, I've often wondered who you were. Who sat at the typewriter in the 1970s or a computer screen from the early 80s onwards, composing those little P O'Neill statements? And who will draft the last one? Who will finally consign 'They haven't gone away you know' to the great dictionary in the sky of defunct quotations?

On the question of who you are, there is quite a general consensus of opinion. The British Government, never mind unionists of all hues, have always regarded you as 'inextricably linked' to Sinn Fein. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said you "were both sides of the same coin". And, as recently as 2005, the then Irish Justice minister accused the President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, and our new Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, of being two of the seven members of the IRA's Army Council. Both swiftly denied any such link but you, as P O'Neill, whoever you are, know the truth of this matter. Mud sticks and any links proven between you and the current Sinn Fein leadership, even if you are not shooting or bombing anyone, are most unsettling.

For example, who said: "The leadership (of Sinn Fein) needs to make a choice between continued association and support for Provisional IRA criminality, and the path of an exclusively democratic political party." Who said: "We do not believe the party has sufficiently discharged its responsibility to exert all possible influence to prevent illegal activities on the part of the IRA."

Who said: "Although we note Sinn Fein has said it is opposed to criminality of any kind, it appears at times to have its own definition of what constitutes a crime."

All of these statements were made, not by any unionist but by the august Independent Monitoring Commission after the embarrassment of the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Robert McCartney in the markets areas of Belfast and long before the recent new controversy over the killing of Paul Quinn in south Armagh.

The latest IMC report, published in November, paints a better picture. While it notes that some IRA members "remained involved in criminality", it also states: "We do not think the organisation is involved in terrorist or other illegal activity and believe it has continued to instruct members to refrain from committing crime."

So where does that leave us, Mr O'Neill? Well, for a start, it leaves me wondering what is the point of the IRA, if it has no weapons and is simply telling its volunteers to be peaceful, law-abiding citizens. Or is the fact that the IRA's structures still exist, sufficient to scare the living daylights out of would-be petty burglars and car thieves in nationalist areas? And come to think of it, does the whole panoply of a terrorist organisation remain even if it doesn't fire a shot? I mean is there really a Chief of Staff, an Adjutant-General, a Quartermaster-General and an unspecified number of volunteers up and down the county serving in self-styled brigades, divisions and commands. For example, what does a Quartermaster-General actually do, if he has no weapons to conceal and none to distribute?

You must accept that this is all a bit baffling - and certainly sinister - to people outside your secret world. So isn't it time to issue that final statement which once and for all, would place Messrs Adams and McGuinness, and Sinn Fein on a more respectable and acceptable political path?

Let me quote Gerry Adams from 2005: "Our leadership is working to create the conditions where the IRA ceases to exist. Do I believe this can be achieved? Yes I do. But I do not believe that the IRA can be wished away, or ridiculed or embarrassed or demonised or repressed out of existence."

Another three years have passed and still the IRA exists, at least in name and structure. And four months from now, the British Government is expecting to hand over control of policing and justice to possibly a Sinn Fein minister at Stormont. What a nonsensical scenario!

Let's have that final P O'Neill statement soon. Whoever you are, I would suggest that our day has come and your day is done. Tiocfaidh ár lá.