Irish political parties currently pose a greater threat to peace in Northern Ireland than the IRA, according to the peace negotiator, Fr Alex Reid.
Father Reid, who received an honorary doctorate from NUI Galway yesterday, said that the rivalry between the Republic's political parties in the lead-up to the next general election could have a serious impact at a time when the Belfast Agreement required renewed commitment.
This commitment was required from both the Irish and British governments if a dangerous vacuum and the prospect of another "Canary Wharf" in Britain was to be avoided, he warned.
Father Reid of the Clonard monastery has been acclaimed nationally and internationally for the crucial role he has played in initiating dialogue between various parties at critical stages of the Northern Ireland conflict.
Speaking to The Irish Times at NUI Galway, Fr Reid quoted Dickens when referring to "the best of times, the worst of times" in Northern Ireland.
He had been involved in peace negotiations in the Basque country in Spain over the past three years, and could see striking parallels with Northern Ireland, he said.
Unionists were "far too damaged by history" to make rational decisions in relation to breaking the current impasse, and the danger was that this situation could fuel an impatience among some of the younger members of the republican movement.
"Unionists are one of this island's greatest assets, and I firmly believe that future economic success on this island depends on their expertise and commitment," he said.
"However, currently they are like a frightened people, emerging from the barricades and facing a forest full of uncertain noise and not knowing which way to turn.
"If the British government does not reaffirm its commitment to equality through the Belfast Agreement, and if the Irish Government does not play its part by keeping a focus on the peace process, rather than on the perceived threat posed by Sinn Féin, we are facing a very risky situation."
Father Reid said he did not want to sound "alarmist", and was speaking personally, rather than for any group. "Language used by political representatives is very important, and that's why an insistence on IRA disbandment is non-productive," he said.
"If the IRA disbands, you run the risk of creating splits, many more Real IRAs. If its members are asked to stand down, that's a different, more positive approach." The Taoiseach's recent criticism of Sinn Féin for party political reasons was "playing into Ian Paisley's hands", Father Reid said.
"Both governments have to be more authoritative, because if a situation develops where there is still a refusal by unionists to agree to anything, and the IRA returns to the streets, you will have a far more violent situation than before.
"This will elicit a violent loyalist response, which in turn will produce national defence committees, and then the situation is out of control."
Father Reid said that he remained optimistic, and there were other options, such as involvement by the EU or the United Nations. "The problem is that the North is like a volcano, and if it erupts again, Ireland will never recover."
It was Father Reid's "rare faith in the value of talking and personal encounters and an unquenchable hope that dialogue might provide a way out, that brought together John Hume of the SDLP and Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin in 1987 - an event that would mark the beginning of a peace process that led to the 1998 signing of the Belfast Agreement," Dr Kathleen Cavanaugh said at yesterday's conferring.
"It has been your persistence and tremendous faith, firmly placed on the far side of revenge, that allowed us all to believe that the shore was indeed reachable," she told him. "You believed in miracles and healing wells and, in doing so, made possible that hope for a great sea of change."