The courage and flexibility demonstrated by the Apprentice Boys and local residents in advance of next Saturday's parade deserves commendation. Generosity is too often seen as a sign of weakness in the North but on this occasion both sides have compromised; both have given way for the common good. The rights and responsibilities of both sides in this ancient quarrel have been acknowledged: there is every prospect that the march - so often the focus for bitter sectarian clashes in the past - could pass without incident. The Parades Commission also deserves credit: its decision to delay any ruling on the contentious parade until the "shuttle negotiations" between both sides bore fruit was well judged; it also played a significant role in helping to cajole the Apprentice Boys and the Bogside Residents' Group (BRG) towards a compromise formula. The question now is whether the Derry agreement offers a template for the resolution of other contentious parades - notably at Drumcree. With goodwill on all sides there is no reason why this cannot be the case. As the chairman of the commission, Mr Alistair Graham, signalled, a machinery and a modus operandi for resolving other disputes is now in place. There is a special responsibility on both sides. They must work to ensure that those who are anxious to foment sectarianism no longer find a safe haven every July at Drumcree.
Saturday's bomb attack by the self-styled "Real IRA" in Banbridge, Co. Down, and other incidents in recent days are a reminder that the threat of random paramilitary violence has not gone away. The Banbridge bombing was the latest - and probably not the last - act of political vandalism by a group who appear determined to wreck the Belfast Agreement, endanger the loyalist ceasefires and, not least, undermine the Sinn Fein leadership. As the security correspondent of this newspaper reported this week, this campaign by a group of Republican dissidents (perhaps numbering as many as 150) is set to intensify in the autumn as the Sinn Fein leadership moves towards a position of government in the new Stormont Assembly.
It is a salutary reminder that there are dangerous days ahead for Northern Ireland when the durability of the Belfast Agreement will come under renewed stress. There will be those who will argue that the Government was unwise, in the prevailing circumstances, to authorise the release of six republican prisoners from Portlaoise prison at the weekend. In truth, it had little alternative: the Government was discharging its commitments under the Belfast Agreement and the agreement is not-negotiable. But this does not obviate the need for the Republican leadership to discharge its responsibilities. In recent months, there have been nods and winks about the decommissioning of weapons, about the return of the bodies of IRA victims, about some kind of statement that the war is over. There has been much hand-wringing about the murder last month, apparently by an IRA gang, of Mr Andy Kearney, a killing which prompted Mr John Taylor to withdraw his support last week for the Northern Ireland Bill implementing the Belfast Agreement. It is time for Sinn Fein to honour its commitments; it must play its full part in the effort to consolidate the peace.