Such decisions will be far reaching and difficult. But you never lacked courage in the past. Your courage is now needed for the future.

In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle. I did so because there was no alternative for those who would not bend the knee, or turn a blind eye to oppression, or for those who wanted a national republic.

The Irish Republican Army has kept every commitment made by its leadership.

The way forward is by building political support for republican and democratic objectives across Ireland and by winning support for these goals internationally.

What is not cool is if we have a problem with an artist or if an artist has a problem with us, come to us directly. Talk to us. Don't start a Twitter war and all that kind of stuff. That's silly.

In any event, it's not exactly a secret to regular readers what my views on the war are.

I don't like being angry all the time; it's not good for me. I have to have serenity or else go to war.

All of Koons's best art - the encased vacuum cleaners, the stainless-steel Rabbit (the late-twentieth century's signature work of Simulationist sculpture), the amazing gleaming Balloon Dog, and the cast-iron re-creation of a Civil War mortar exhibited last month at the Armory - has simultaneously flaunted extreme realism, idealism, and fantasy.