The British government's cynically conceived legacy legislation has now become law, with the Northern Ireland (Troubles and Reconciliation) Act gaining royal assent on Monday.
As a way of dealing with the past in an even-handed way, the Act is hopelessly flawed. It effectively offers perpetrators an amnesty for Troubles-related offences and ends victims' hopes of seeing their cases being investigated to a criminal standard and dealt with by the courts.
All legacy matters are being swept together under the remit of a new body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery.
It is headed by Sir Declan Morgan, a former lord chief justice, and its investigations will be led by Peter Sheridan, a former senior RUC and PSNI officer who joins the ICRIR after 15 years with Co-operation Ireland.
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It is, however, questionable just how busy the ICRIR will actually be. Victims' groups, all of the north's main political parties, the Irish government and others have consistently opposed the legislation which has created it. Labour says it will repeal the Act if it comes to power.
Multiple legal challenges have already been issued against the government, arguing that the legislation is unlawful, unconstitutional and in breach of the NI Protocol as well as the European Convention of Human Rights.
Even if the courts eventually decide in the government's favour, the ICRIR faces an enormous – perhaps insurmountable – task to gain the trust of victims of republican and loyalist paramilitaries and state forces who feel deeply betrayed by the Tories' approach.
Although the government has bludgeoned the legislation into existence, secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris, with his customary lack of insight into our affairs, has pronounced on how it contains "finely balanced political and moral choices".
Confirming the Act's royal assent on Monday, Mr Heaton-Harris took the opportunity to have another swipe at the Irish government, saying he hoped it would also "do all it can to support the ICRIR".
That is a remote hope, as Mr Heaton-Harris fully knows. Just a couple of weeks ago, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Irish government was weighing up whether to take its own case against the UK at the European Court on Human Rights. It should press ahead with a case to test the weakness of the British position.
The UK government may believe that it has begun to draw a line under the past, including under its own role in shaping it. That is not only deluded but also underestimates the determination of Troubles victims and relatives to continue their fight for justice.
