Mr John Hume's speech at the weekend conference of the SDLP was a timely corrective of the current mood of despondency and apprehension surrounding the efforts to find a political settlement in the North. In spite of the many setbacks and, in particular, the consequences for the whole process flowing from Drumcree last summer, certain things have changed fundamentally, often through the dogged persistence of the SDLP itself under Mr Hume's leadership.
Europe provides a new framework and a set of common interests for North and South, and the experience of more than two years of relative peace has shown tangible benefits for the economy and the lives of ordinary individuals. There is a closer and more positive relationship between the Irish and British governments than at any time in history. Violence, at a terrible cost, has been shown to be ineffective. By any objective yardstick, Mr Hume is right in declaring that "Our quarrel is out of date, let us leave it behind us, let us leave the past behind us
And yet, by their actions and their words, some leaders of both extremes in the North, unionist and republican, would have us believe otherwise. There is no threat to fundamental unionist interests greater than the one unionist extremism helps to keep alive by providing a rationale for militant republicanism; no threat to nationalism more potent than the IRA's refusal to accept that history has moved against it, thereby helping to feed the spirit of Drumcree. The death wish, unfortunately, is more easily set in motion than the will to live.
The alternative scenario is Mr Hume's familiar one of a world out there waiting to play its part in economic revival, either through the established links with the Irish diaspora in the United States which have been tapped to help certain areas in the North already, or through the developing network of the European Union. There are few activities which would not gain from co operation between both parts of this island and none which would be adversely affected. Historically, violence and political disruption, and the diversion of constructive energies into the maintenance of verbal barricades, have been the enemy of social and economic development for both traditions.
These are the realities underlying the political process, and the participants in the peace talks are, at least nominally, committed to finding a basis on which the old divisions can be confronted and finally eliminated. The example of France and Germany, whose bloody rivalry for more than a century has been sublimated in the EU, or other states like The Netherlands and Denmark where the memory of conquest and oppression in the second World War is relatively recent, how that the challenge of bridging differences requires only political will and capable leadership. How these are to be generated in the North is a far more intractable question than the substantive issues for which a solution must be found.
Reports of a new, aggressive strategy by the IRA, of a "spectacular" before Christmas, of a combination of politics and Semtex to push forward the republican agenda, only illustrate how detached that organisation is from the concerns and aspirations of the average citizen of this island. Its only real achievement, in 25 years, has been to deepen hatred to the detriment of every citizen in both parts of the island.