Officials left to figure out safe way down as parties march North back to the brink

ANALYSIS:The DUP seemed to soften demands for the abolition of the Parades Commission as negotiations wore on

HOTHOUSE TALKS at Hillsborough Castle can sometimes lead to confusing messages as reporters try to figure whether there is still some hope of a deal now that the Taoiseach and British prime minister are back in town.

"Martin says there canbe progress," reported one journalist which through a series of Chinese whispers became "Martin McGuinness says there can be progress". How could this make sense after the High Noon"critical and defining" encounter between Peter Robinson and McGuinness at Parliament Buildings, Stormont yesterday resulted in more stalemate?

Then there was clarity, of sorts. “It’s Micheál Martin that says there can be progress,” explained another reporter. That made more sense all right. Government ministers and leaders always travel in hope.

As the talks continued last night at Hillsborough Castle, Dublin and London sources insisted that all was not yet lost.

The battleground remained the same. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness wanted a date for the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive. Peter Robinson in reciprocation wanted the abolition of the Parades Commission.

Almost everyone outside the DUP accepted that scrapping the commission was a demand too far for Sinn Féin, but that equally the parades issue could be finessed through compromise or good old Ulster political fudge.

A senior Ulster Unionist Assembly member said yesterday afternoon that he couldn’t figure why Robinson was holding so firm on the commission.

“He won’t get any thanks from the Orange Order no matter what he does,” he said.

Martin – as in Micheál, the Minister for Foreign Affairs – spoke to us through the railings of Hillsborough Castle after 11 cars and 17 motorcycle police outriders had minutes earlier deposited the Taoiseach and prime minister and their entourages at the doors of the castle.

“We are not going to contemplate failure,” he said.

“Our view, our sense, is that all the parties want a resolution of all the outstanding issues,” he added.

He wasn’t providing any detail but the fact that the Taoiseach and prime minister should first meet at Downing Street and then fly to Northern Ireland to host last-ditch talks meant the governments still believed there was some hope of a deal.

But where is the hope if both sides remain so deadlocked on parading?

Well, that’s why the governments employ high-powered officials who through years and years of peace and political process have managed to create the most labyrinthine escape routes away from political collapse.

Most of the focus last night was on parades. Peter Robinson was considering how in Derry local nationalists and the Apprentice Boys through dialogue and good manners managed to settle what had been years of contentious, often violent annual August relief of Derry marches.

Officials were drawing up papers, Robinson presented McGuinness with a position paper on parades, ideas were being exchanged. What was crucial was that whatever proposals came forward could be sold by Robinson and McGuinness to their respective parties and constituencies.

If Robinson were to step back on parades he had to do so in a manner where he could challenge any claims of surrender or sell-out that inevitably will come from his opponents, principally from Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice party.

“What we are working on is a process that looks at the future of the Parades Commission but without any predetermined outcome about its future,” explained one senior source.

A proposal around such a defined yet malleable concept seemed to offer the best chance of resolution as the Taoiseach, British prime minister, DUP leader and Deputy First Minister worked late into the night at Hillsborough Castle.

The most hopeful line came late last night from DUP finance minister Sammy Wilson, who said that the party was “not being prescriptive” on parading, and what they wanted was an arrangement that worked. This pointed to some possibility of a formula being devised that could yet save Stormont from meltdown.