As the people of Bambridge, Co Down, prepared for today’s funeral of PC Stephen Paul Carroll, the Odd Couple of Irish politics were in the United States, declaring that it was business as usual.

Peter Robinson, the First Minister, and Martin McGuinness, his deputy, arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night to the kind of reception that might have seemed insensitive back in Northern Ireland and even here, in a town with a tenuous grasp on reality, was verging on the surreal.

A reception had been arranged at a $5.5 million (£4 million), seven-bedroom, Mediterranean-style mansion in Hancock Park - the residence of Bob Peirce, the British Consul-General A jazz trio played in the corner of the garden, illuminated by the soft glow from fairy lights wrapped around a nearby tree trunk.

Guests, including the Northern Irish actor Kenneth Branagh and American comedy stars, drank Californian wine and Irish ale as they awaited the arrival of the guests of honour. The food was custom designed for the homesick Brit: mini-Yorkshire puddings, lamb chops and mini-roast potato canapés.

The arrival of Mr McGuinness, a former leader in the Provisional IRA, in the back of a massive, chrome-rimmed, tinted-windowed Cadillac Escalade SUV - the kind favoured by rappers such as 50 Cent - bordered on the comic.

Even under normal circumstances, it is unlikely that the party would have been just another official function as Mr Peirce has been more forthright than many of his predecessors in using British celebrities such as David Beckham and Daniel Craig to promote British interests in Southern California.

After all, the party was in honour of two men who only a few years ago were on the opposite sites of a bloody unrest in Northern Ireland and the Republic that cost an estimated 3,500 lives over 30 years.

Mr Peirce knows more than most about what it took to end the Troubles: a former lead negotiator on the handover of Hong Kong to China, he helped to craft the 1998 Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland.

It was he who urged Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness not to cancel their trade visit, which had been delayed because of the fatal shooting of two British soldiers at the Massereene Barracks in Antrim and the murder of PC Carroll in Craigavon, Co Armagh. He said: “If you cancel it, the terrorists win.”

Of course, even without the tragic timing, it was always going to be a slightly surreal affair, seeing Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness embark on their US honeymoon.

The Consul-General’s office had anticipated the incongruity, and prepared accordingly. The two or three correspondents at the event were kept at a safe distance from the pair as they shook hands with local business leaders, government officials and representatives of Irish tourism.

After an hour or so of mingling came the speeches, which were designed to acknowledge the gravity of the situation in Northern Ireland and also to downplay it.

Mr McGuinness said that the violence “made the world news only because it was so unusual” and that it was the work of “tiny micro-groups that have no support whatsoever with the general public”.

The damage control did not go entirely smoothly. Mr Robinson made what some regarded as a clumsy comparison between the targeting of military and police personnel by hardline factions of the IRA with this week’s massacre in Alabama – the work of a lone suicidal gunman.

“It doesn’t take much for a deranged individual to fire a shot,” he said, adding that, “for those who want to live in a safe environment, you’re safer in Northern Ireland than you are in LA.” (Northern Ireland’s murder rate per capita is less than a third of that of Los Angeles.) A few minutes later, Mr McGuinness told the guests: “I still believe we’re now in charge of one of the most successful peace processes in the world today.”

He then became distracted by a celebrity in the crowd - the sitcom star Patricia Heaton. “I’ve been a big fan for many years of Everybody Loves Raymond,” the ex-IRA man gushed uncharacteristically.

Then, to laughter, he added: “I’m really baring my soul here tonight.”

Mr McGuinness went on to inform the guests that the next day the Irish delegation would be “going to meet with senior fill-um executives”, before flying to Washington DC for a St Patrick’s Day reception at the White House, at which they will meet President Obama Both men will no doubt be acutely aware of the potential for a PR disaster as these images are broadcast back to Northern Ireland. They can only hope that people there believe them when they say that if the trip had been called off, it would have given those who oppose the peace progress the victory they wanted.

Gerry Adams and the armed struggle

“Armed struggle is morally correct against a government rejected by the vast majority of the Irish people.” Sinn Féin congress, 1983

“In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle. Now there is an alternative.” Address to the IRA, Belfast, 2005

“Wrong and counter-productive . . . Sinn Féin has a responsibility to be consistent. The logic of this is that we support the police in the apprehension of those involved in last night’s attack.” When asked to comment on the murders of two soldiers at the Massereene army base

Martin McGuinness and the armed struggle

“I am a member of Oglaigh na Eireann [IRA] and very, very proud of it.” To a Dublin court, on being convicted of IRA membership charges, 1973

“Everybody in Derry knows what I’ve been in the past, everybody in Ireland knows. I’m not ashamed of it. Everybody knows I was always involved in opposition to British rule in Ireland and the British occupation forces.” Interview, 1999

“These people [Real IRA], they are traitors to the island of Ireland.” Speaking at news conference on Tuesday, alongside First Minister Peter Robinson and Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde

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