One cannot fault the Taoiseach for his optimism. No one who bears the responsibility of either of the governments attempting to find a way to break out of the ancestral deadlock in the northern part of this island can admit to despair or outraged frustration. That is a luxury in which only partisans or bystanders can indulge. The key to any advance, as each successive initiative trembles on the edge of destruction, is determination to press on, like Voltaire's Pangloss muttering - "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" as his disciple, Candide, slipped on another banana skin.
The difficulty is that when ill informed media believe that every step on the way is a switch pointing to success or failure, misunderstanding is bound to occur. The detailed report published in this newspaper yesterday of Mr Bruton's remarks on the possibility of an IRA ceasefire makes it clear that he considered the groundwork was being laid, primarily through the talks between the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party, which might make such an outcome; likely. Talk of a ceasefire, widely reported as a result of the Taoiseach's remarks, was certainly premature and is clearly contingent on other events.
If this is a correct interpretation, and if the SDLP UUP talks do bear fruit, then there are indeed grounds for hope. In spite of the determined efforts of the DUP (goaded on not by principle, but by small minded considerations of party advantage) to limit access to the peace talks, there can be no comprehensive or lasting agreement that does not involve the parties representing the militant extremes once they have credibly and definitively renounced violence.
Mr Bruton drew attention to the more optimistic context in which a settlement fair to all can be negotiated when, in his address to the two Houses of Congress, he spoke about the fundamental change in the concept of sovereignty in the course of this century. Since this State's admission to the European Union, bearers of Irish culture have gone forth, benefitting from the right of mobility, and settled in other member states with, if anything, a strengthening of their national awareness. Nation and territory, so terribly abused by the ideologues responsible for two world wars, are no longer co extensive and multi ethnicity is the rule rather than the exception. In the Taoiseach's words, "A new political model is needed to organise this new social reality a model that recognises that people can have more allegiances than one, and yet live and work happily together".
In Europe, with a common sense of purpose and shared problems, the parochial barriers that underlie the recurrent confrontations between the communities have less meaning. Mr Bruton's argument that nationalist and unionist can tolerate their differences when they are sublimated in a new allegiance in the European framework may sound far fetched or absurd to some of those engaged in divisive politics in the North. But that is to overlook the dynamism already having its effect on a sect oral basis, for example in agriculture. A broader definition of politics is required, one that is not compartmentalised and kept separate from other activities where there is already a high degree of co operation and common sense.
The United States has a continuing role to play in encouraging these more positive elements to come to the fore through the generous interest of its businessmen and involvement of its political leaders.