It is evident from their comments in New York yesterday that both Mr Bruton and Mr Blair remain determined to push the peace process forward with or without Sinn Fein. An agreement between the two governments aimed at resolving the decommissioning issue is in situ in time for today's resumption of the all party talks at Stormont. The question now is whether their joint effort will continue to be frustrated by the customary mix of political grandstanding by Sinn Fein and others and by the pernicious threat of further IRA violence.
Meanwhile, Drumcree looms on Sunday week next, like a threatening cloud on an already darkened horizon. And the enemies of peace, having struck in Lurgan and elsewhere, are reportedly still poised, ready to exploit any further deepening in sectarian thinking. It is a bleak landscape but one which is even now not without some small shafts of light. The announcement by Canon Sean Connolly that Saturday evening Masses at Harryville - which have been the target of loyalist protests - would be suspended until September was a magnanimous and generous gesture. The RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, has said that the decision was motivated solely by a genuine and sincere desire to reduce tension. I think it's a most sincere gesture by the congregation. . . it's certainly not one we would have sought", he declared.
Would that this attitude might be universally reciprocated. The warning by the Orange deputy grand master, Mr Robert Overend, in Bellaghy, Co Derry at the weekend is scarcely encouraging. Mr Overend cautioned that Orangemen would pursue their rights this summer. "Just because I don't want to fight doesn't mean I can't", he said. If we are to be spared another round of ritualised baiting at Drumcree everyone will have to do better than insisting on ancient rights. Dr Mowlam is investing quantities of energy and patience in an effort to broker some compromise. But the best prospect for peace still resides in direct talks between the order and the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition. The order has seized on the IRA prison record of the main Garvaghy Road spokesman in order to sidestep negotiations but even now its leaders must think of their wider responsibility to long term stability in the community.
The moment of truth is also nigh for Sinn Fein. The agreement on decommissioning between both governments provides ample evidence of how their commitment to an agreed settlement endures. In his statement to the Commons tomorrow Mr Blair is expected to tell Sinn Fein in unambiguous terms that he can do nothing more to secure its entry into the political talks. He will also reaffirm his commitment to a political settlement by next May. The options facing Sinn Fein are narrowing. Unionist opposition to the decommissioning agreement could melt away if it were clear that the talks will continue with or without Sinn Fein. And the governments have been signalling contingency plans should the Stormont talks again run into the sand. As between conflict and peace, the choice - for both communities has rarely been so stark.