The whole point of the IRA at the start of the 20th century and of the civil rights movement of the sixties and the IRA of the seventies was to attempt (rightly or wrongly) to affect change that would improve the lives of ordinary people.

The peace process, culminating in the uneasy handshake between McGuinesss and Paisley, has done more to achieve those goals than any bomb or bullet ever could.

There are some who may argue that those tactics were necessary in their time, and some who may argue that they were criminal, but that is not a discussion which should concern us now.

The point is still the wellbeing of ordinary people and a return to violence in modern day northern Ireland will not bring this, but will instead bring misery and death and in the long run poverty too as the economy begins to slide even deeper than any credit crunch could be expected to drive it.

Northern Ireland has so much potential to be a great and happy home for catholics and protestants, unionists and republicans, gays and straights, marmite lovers and marmite haters.

But they need a stable peaceful society in which to achieve such a goal.

If Pearce, Collins or any of Irelands great campaigners were around today, I believe they would observe that the opportunities and lifestyle available to the average catholic in Ireland today, north or south of the border, are as good as they ever could have hoped for.

It is the ordinary working family who matters and it is they who will suffer if the violence returns.