THE Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, is a nationalist but one more acceptable to unionist thinking than the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, according to an editorial in the Church of Ireland Gazette published today.
The Taoiseach has a broader appreciation of the real issues of concern to unionism than any of his predecessors, according to the Gazette.
Mr Bruton's carefully balanced speech at the Fine Gael Ardfheis must encourage unionists to believe that progress is possible that does not encroach on their most basic positions."
The signals coming from Dublin are ambiguous but give some cause for hope. However, unionist suspicions of the Tanaiste have not been allayed.
Mr Bruton's struggle to free the Republic from the legacy of hate and ambivalence about violence displeases the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, according to the editorial.
Mr Adams, in his recent article in The Irish Tines, accused Mr Bruton of undermining the basis for the IRA ceasefire by denying the existence of a "nationalist consensus".
Yet on the most characteristic of Sinn Fein/IRA strategies - the right to murder people classified as political opponents - there is and can be no nationalist consensus," according to the editorial.