Today, the dangerous vacuum in political life which Northern Ireland has endured in the years of direct rule from Westminster is to be remedied in considerable measure. More than 27 years after the suspension of Stormont, the electorate goes out to choose a representative assembly which will sit at the centre of Northern Ireland's new political structures. It is a day which many believed they would never see and which even a few short months ago might have been considered impossible.
For some, it is a day they earnestly hoped they would not see. As yesterday's reckless attack in Newtownhamilton and the previous day's attempted mine-trap, also in South Armagh, illustrated, those who cling to the bomb and the bullet have not gone away - to borrow a phrase. And aligned with them, in mindset if not necessarily in methods, are the elements within each community which still resist the notion of sharing power. They are the supremacists - both nationalist and unionist - who have domination rather than accommodation as their credo. More than 280 candidates from over a dozen parties are contending for the Assembly's 108 seats. By contrast with the straightforward first-past-the-post electoral system which is used for Westminster elections, it may appear a daunting challenge to the voter. Anything between 20 and 22 candidates' names may appear on some of the ballot papers. Proportional representation is both taxing and satisfying from the voter's point of view. It demands judgment while allowing the franchise to be exercised in a manner which is sophisticated and often subtle.
But in fundamentals, the voters' choice is not nearly as difficult as it might at first seem. They are asked to choose between the way of compromise and the way of continuing confrontation. In each constituency there are candidates who stand for dialogue, for compromise and for the values of mutual respect and esteem. Conversely, there are candidates who wish to be in the Assembly only to frustrate the agenda solemnised in the Belfast Agreement. Every voter faces a straight choice between the forces of reconciliation and those of retrenchment.
At constituency level, after that, all sorts of tactical voting is possible and it will be intriguing to see how votes may transfer across traditional lines. Voters will have to decide if they are willing to give second or subsequent preferences to those whom they have traditionally regarded as rivals - in order to block the progress of some whom they would until recently have regarded as allies. The choice is between a continuation of the past and seeking to make a new future in which old certainties, old loyalties and old alignments have lost much of their meaning.
The people of Northern Ireland who have been bombed, shot, harassed, intimidated, threatened, ground down and in many individual instances brought to the limits of human endurance, have their day today. If it can be said of any people that they deserve to find peace and normality it must be true of them. They must have the good wishes and the encouragement of all as they step out today with the chance to make a new future and to shape their own destiny.