If the process went no further, the achievement of the Northern talks this week in securing the presence around a negotiating table of unionists and republicans (and some in between) would be significant. To borrow Peter Brooke's metaphor, this point on the course has not been reached before. And whether or not it leads on to a full settlement, these September days of 1997 will be marked in the history books.
The proverbial Martian, dropped innocently at Stormont Buildings, might wonder why it should be remarkable that people who share the same small island space should sit down to devise an accommodation with each other. It would be difficult to explain the extraordinary forces of diplomacy, statecraft, psychology and advocacy which have been mobilised to reach this point. And it would be equally hard to overstate the personal qualities of patience, endurance and courage which have been committed to the process.
Is it real? Only the foolhardy would say that it cannot come unstuck. It is a phenomenon of negotiating processes that after a time they tend to build their own momentum, the participants developing mutual dependencies which transcend earlier rivalries. This phase - if it is reached - is a long way off in the Stormont talks. And fears of bad faith run deep, as described by the Northern Editor of this newspaper yesterday. The possibility that Sinn Fein is merely talking under the umbrella of a tactical ceasefire is matched by the suspicion that unionists are engaging in tactical dialogue, awaiting the optimum moment to withdraw while leaving the talks vehicle stranded.
Optimism, faith, courage and dogged resolution have brought the process thus far. And if it is to succeed, they must drive it further. There will be black days when those holding wholly irreconcilable positions come into direct confrontation. There will be moments when those on both sides will utter words or express sentiments which will exacerbate all the worst, centuries-old fears and hatreds of the other community. There may well be days when violent persons outside of the talks process seek to derail it through violence or atrocity.
If it does work, the effects upon everyone who inhabits this island will be considerable. Any agreement will have three strands, governing relations within the North, between North and South and between Ireland and Britain. And any agreement will be underpinned by way of referendum. There will have to be fundamental alterations in thinking, first and foremost among the two communities within the North. Cherished positions and age-old certainties will have to yield to compromise. The impact on society within the Republic will be tectonic. There will be legal and constitutional change on a scale which has not been known since the ratification of the Constitution under Mr de Valera. And there will also have to be changes in mind-sets. The rhetoric both of partitionism and aggressive republicanism has abated greatly in recent years. But there are significant residues of arrogance, ignorance and lack of generosity in much Southern thinking vis-a-vis the North. Whatever about unionist and nationalist in Ulster, there are many on this side of the border whose minds have not yet engaged with the implications of a possible settlement.