THE Border isn't worth an angry argument, let alone a life. That view is shared by overwhelming majority of people living in these Islands, 89 per cent in this State, 81 per cent in Britain, and 80 per cent in, Northern Ireland.

So what has the fighting been about? As important, how far are people prepared to move from their entrenched positions to ensure that we don't have another 25 years of it.

The opinion poll conducted ink both parts of Ireland and in Britain found, not surprisingly, an overwhelming yearning that peace should be restored, but also some serious pointers as to how that might be achieved.

For example support for a united Ireland as the "preferred solution" to the problem of the North now stands at 39 per cent among people living in this State. A total of 29 per cent believes the North should have links with both the United Kingdom and the Republic while 22 per cent are prepared to support an internal settlement.

We've been told for some time now that people "down here" don't care about a united Ireland, that they just want peace. Even so, these figures should provide a strong argument for the Government in trying to convince the unionist community that their best guarantee for the future lies primarily in the goodwill of their Southern neighbours.

Unionists should not ignore though it might be tactless for Dublin to stress it that people living in Britain look with favour on any settlement for Northern Ireland which seems to offer the hope of removing it from the UK's political agenda once and for all.

Thirty two per cent of respondents would prefer Northern Ireland to be independent, while just 17 per cent thinks it should remain part of the United Kingdom.

People in Britain and in both parts of Ireland share, very firmly, certain views about the peace process. They refuse to believe that the process is finished, want to see the IRA's ceasefire reinstated, and the decommissioning of weapons either before or during talks.

None of these findings is exactly startling. Nor, given the bombs in London, is the fact that 74 per cent of people living in Britain blame the IRA for the breakdown of the ceasefire.

What is surprising, though, is that 45 per cent of these respondents are prepared to put some of the blame on their own government in London. At the same time an extremely high proportion of people in Britain (81 per cent) believes that the peace process is just stalled at present, or even that it is "still continuing" a more positive vote for optimism than exists in either the Republic or Northern Ireland.

This sends a very clear message to Mr John Major that he will have the overwhelming support of his own domestic electorate if he takes political risks for peace.

There is scepticism in both is about the proposal for 30 per cent of those polled in Britain saw it as likely to help in restoring peace, though this may be because their knowledge of Northern Irish politics is derived mainly from watching the various party leaders insulting each other on television.

Similarly, the much higher level of support for John Hume's referendum probably owes a lot to the SDLP leader's skills in presenting his ideas on TV and the conciliatory, language he habitually uses.

OVERWHELMINGLY, the vote is for peace and the message to both the IRA and the politicians is "for God's sake, get on with it". There are hopeful signs of movement from entrenched positions.

But, as always, it's prudent toe sound a note of caution. Experience over the past 25 years has shown that opinion polls in the North consistently indicate that people hold much more moderate views than they later express at the ballot box.

The reason is obvious enough. When you don't know who is asking the questions, the safest thing is to say nothing of an extreme nature that might give offence.

Even so, this poll shows that attitudes in Northern Ireland are the most rigid because people are more frightened about the future.

On the importance of the Border, for example, 17 per cent of those questioned in the North believe that "the Border matters and people should be prepare to fight for it if necessary. Twenty one per cent of Northern Protestants hold this view.

There's still a lot of work to be done before they believe that only 7 per cent of people living in this State would want to join in the fight, and even that number is dropping.