They aren’t going to go away although nobody wants them. The cold-blooded murder of journalist Lyra McKee by so called dissident republicans in Derry on Holy Thursday was an abomination. And yet we shake our heads in disbelief at Islamic terrorists? Can somebody explain the fundamental difference in their futile aims?

To compound their delusion, two days later, they showed blatant disregard for civil society when they openly organised an embarrassing yet chilling mock paramilitary parade down O’Connell Street in Dublin. They hide behind patriotism as criminals with zero respect for law and order. Don’t we know it, they’d be up to no good in a united Ireland either. “Brits out” acts as a convenient cover for their true intentions which runs contrary to the ideals of any modern republic. While the rest of us use the 1998 Good Friday Agreement as the reference point determining everybody’s future on this island, they live in a parallel universe.

Anybody who saw fit to mock our army and march along O’Connell Street in Dublin two days after the shocking murder of an innocent woman should be ashamed of themselves. But they obviously don’t do shame. Instead in their blinkered world of make believe, they have radicalised themselves into believing that they are somehow relevant. God forbid anybody would believe that they are representative of modern Irish thinking. The events of the past fortnight, seems to have mercifully proved nobody does.

Still it really is such a pity that the rest of us have had to spend the past two weeks giving media oxygen to this tiny minority of deluded fantasists. But it has been depressingly enlightening and necessary to hear from those in the know, their disregard for decency in the wake of their murder of Lyra McKee.

It’s fair to suggest judging by the numbers that attended that they represent very few. But they have obviously managed over a number of years to consolidate by preying on the vulnerable in society.

Because where there is poverty and no hope, you’ll find fertile ground to recruit vulnerable youngsters in the mood for a rebellion – any sort of rebellion. It happens all over the world where there is ghettoisation. It will always be the way, a dangerous void which is filled easily by radicalism. And the failure of politics in Northern Ireland is certainly to blame for creating such a vacuum in places like the Creggan which has allowed the godfathers of crime to utilise this vulnerability as a bulwark in their blatant disregard for democracy. Using historical jargon such as the “crown forces” as part of their outdated propaganda in a pathetic attempt to justify their existence only serves to paint a picture of the time warp they inhabit.

Whatever about 1998, to them we are all still back in 1916. But who are the rest of us to talk at the end of the day? Look at the state of Northern politics over the past two years. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

Important traits

The many warm tributes paid to the late Feargal Quinn last week was a timely reminder of how standards have fallen so low in customer service across the board. Yes, there are some lovely shopkeepers and barmen knocking around, I know many. But the downgrading of these trades and the dehumanising of customer service in shops and pubs just to name two is an anathema to all Feargal Quinn stood for. There were many anecdotes of the importance in which he held the simple traits of good customer service, not least smiling and making the customer feel welcome and important. May he rest in peace.