Unwieldy words could prove to be the right formula

The devil is in the detail, but the Cowen-Brown proposal on parades might yet satisfy both Sinn Féin and the DUP, writes GERRY MORIARTYNorthern Editor

IT WAS another long, brutally cold day’s journey into night and the mood inside Hillsborough Castle was distinctly nervous, irritable and uncertain.

As Peter Robinson said outside the castle yesterday afternoon, it was down to two issues. He didn’t specify them but, surprise, surprise, they were policing and justice, and parading.

All the parties, but principally the DUP and Sinn Féin, were on the edge of a deal but moving across the line was proving daunting and terrifying. It could go either way.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and British prime minister Gordon Brown had again cleared their diaries and were on standby to fly back to Northern Ireland – but only if the deal was done.

Indications were that they would not travel last night, although if the talks went through the night, as seemed distinctly possible at the time of writing, they could come today or possibly leave it to Monday. A weekend break could allow people to think straighter.

It seemed that the Taoiseach and prime minister were prepared to hold off on publishing their own proposals for a deal, as they had announced on Wednesday.

Through the day and into the night there were hail and snow showers outside the castle – not unlike the snow that fell on Good Friday morning 1998 before that eponymous deal. We couldn’t tell whether this was an augur of success or failure.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan told us that this weekend sees the 1,000th day of partial devolution since Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams decided they could and should share power.

Completing that devolution and moving into 1,000 more days, and beyond, hinges on Peter Robinson accepting the British-Irish proposal put down by Cowen and Brown on Wednesday of a May date for formally transferring policing and justice responsibility to the Northern Executive.

Word at Hillsborough through much of yesterday was that Robinson was prepared to sign up to a date but the sticking point was parading.

Before leaving Hillsborough on Wednesday Cowen and Brown spoke of “enhancing” the existing framework for dealing with parades. That was a deliberately loose form of words designed to allow a solution acceptable to both the DUP and Sinn Féin.

Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams made clear they could not contemplate the abolition of the Parades Commission while Peter Robinson required an arrangement he could sell to unionism, without Jim Allister of the Traditional Unionist Voice being in a reasonably strong position to accuse the DUP leader of sell-out.

Speculation going around Hillsborough yesterday was of a possible “Utterly Butterly” solution, as in, “I can’t believe it’s not the Parades Commission”. In other words, the parades formula could allow for both Sinn Féin and the DUP to sell any parades proposal as meeting the needs of their constituencies.

There was talk of a revamped commission with much greater local involvement in addressing the remaining contentious parades. That was implicit in the draft proposals in the joint statement by Cowen and Brown on Wednesday.

They wanted an arrangement “to deal more effectively with contentious parades, learning lessons from successful local models, and enhance the framework governing parades and related public assemblies in a way that guarantees respect, dialogue, transparence and independence”.

The words may be unwieldy but who could argue with them? But, as always, the devil would be in the detail, which was why there was so much edginess around Hillsborough Castle yesterday.

Conscious of mistakes made in previous negotiations, both the DUP and Sinn Féin were anxious not to be wrong-footed.

Some sources spoke of disagreements within the Sinn Féin camp. There was no Sinn Féin confirmation, needless to say, while another neutral source put down any republican disquiet to what happens people when they are locked in tense and intensive negotiations for five days with little sleep.

“There are tired people in there; that’s a hidden factor,” he said.

Robinson said a deal needed all sides to “stretch themselves” while Sinn Féin Minister Conor Murphy described yesterday as a “fairly defining day and I expect we will have to call it reasonably soon”.

Our objective observer agreed. “Robinson is correct,” he said. “It’s always difficult when people have to stretch themselves. There are many more hours in this. This could go either way; it could be the storm before the calm. It’s still eminently do-able.” And still we waited with no imminent sign of either Taoiseach or prime minister.