Court cases north and south this week have yet again exposed the futility of the dissident republican campaign of violence, a campaign that is wholly destructive both in terms of its aims and in the impact it has on those actively involved.
Prisons on both sides of the border are populated by individuals who have become involved in dissident actions and are now paying a heavy price for that involvement.
Among those before the courts yesterday was 66-year-old Donal Billings from Co Longford who was jailed for eight and a half years for placing an incendiary device on a Dublin-bound bus and making bomb threats during the visit of Queen Elizabeth in 2011.
After a phone call to Longford garda station, an object comprising gunpowder and a two-litre bottle of petrol was found in the luggage compartment of a bus carrying a number of passengers.
At Dublin's Special Criminal Court, Mr Justice Hunt told Billings this was an `outrageous, highly irresponsible and dangerous act' that exposed passengers, staff and the emergency services to significant risk of injury or death.
Billings also made a series of hoax bomb warnings that were clearly intended to disrupt a state visit which was regarded as especially important in terms of reconciliation and peace-building.
This man has two convictions for possession of explosives in Northern Ireland dating back to 1973, and it is a pity he failed to learn the lessons of that terrible time when violence brought only horror and suffering to so many people.
Meanwhile, at Belfast Crown Court yesterday, two men from the west of the city were sentenced for possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances.
Although at the lower end of the spectrum, these convictions will have major consequences for these men and their families, something that dissident sympathisers need to think about very carefully.
As these and other recent cases show, dissidents must realise there is every likelihood they will be caught and brought before the courts for their violent activities.
