Those among the great majority on this island desperately searching for glimmers of optimism in Northern Ireland after the tumult of the past week will have found little to reassure them in yesterday's resumed session of the multi party talks. Even after Drumcree, Enniskillen and the seizure of bomb making equipment in London, the concentration remained on procedural wrangles rather than issues of substance on obfuscation rather than compromise.
The bitter residue left after Drumcree provided fresh opportunities for bickering at yesterday's session. The SDLP and the Alliance Party accused the main unionist parties not without some legitimacy of breaching the Mitchell principles. And the main unionist parties argued that the SDLP's withdrawal from the Forum should debar them from the talks.
The talks remain in a kind of suspended animation with continuing bilateral engagements between the various parties and Senator Mitchell and no agreement still on any firm agenda, let alone a move towards plenary sessions. As Mr Davy Adams one of those close to the thinking of loyalist paramilitaries observed yesterday, there must be concern that the whole business has become a charade, an opportunity for "play acting" by some of the participants.
In this context, last night's statement from Senator Mitchell and his colleagues was a stark and welcome reminder of what is at stake in accepting the "extreme difficulties" of the talks now under way, they also declared that "the talks represent the only acceptable alternative. An end to the talks could condemn the people of Northern Ireland to a renewal of widespread sectarian violence".
The task facing both the Irish and British governments at tomorrow's Anglo Irish Conference in London is to re-invigorate the talks process. The sole alternative strategy on the table the proposal by the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr Trimble, for 1992 style discussions between the main parties and the British Prime Minister, Mr Major looks suspiciously like a delaying tactic, and an effort to limit the influence of Senator Mitchell.
Yesterday's discussions, on the margins of the talks, between the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, and the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, were notable for the lack of any further recrimination between both sides. It is to be hoped that tomorrow's conference will see the same constructive approach. Both sides will clearly want to vindicate their conflicting versions of events at Drumcree but this must not be allowed to dominate proceedings. Both governments must also assert, in clear and unambiguous terms, that the use of violence or the threat of violence from any quarter will not be tolerated. And they must convince a sceptical public that there is, indeed, a robust political strategy in place which can revive a faltering peace process.