Both nationalists and unionists have been heard to observe that Portadown is a microcosm of Northern Ireland. That may not be strictly true, for its very large Protestant majority is no longer so typical. But the crisis which comes to a head there this weekend does reflect accurately the deep, bitter mistrust and the primal territoriality which underlie the failure of politics in Northern Ireland.
The deadlock on the Garvaghy Road is not principally about the expression of religious beliefs, as the Orange Order would have the world believe. Nor is it a savage repression of the Catholic minority as some of the propagandists on the nationalist side want to represent it. The grievances of neither side are so intolerable that they would immediately draw sympathy from those who have seen repression and denial of human dignity in full quota elsewhere.
What is at issue is the unresolved question of how two communities, one historically the stronger, one weaker, can share the same small land mass. And what is expressed by Orangemen marching, and by nationalists resisting them, is the marking out of living space lebensraum. The deep-seated fear of unionists is that of cultural extinction, of being swallowed by a resurgent nationalism and what they perceive as a hostile neighbour-state. For the nationalists of the Garvaghy Road area there is anger at what they regard as a violation of their neighbourhood, resentment at what they see as naked triumphalism and a physical fear of isolation in a hostile area.
The gestures of sensible compromise which people might make in normal circumstances are unlikely to come easily here. They may be interpreted as weakness and they may represent ground lost for all time. No matter what solution the Secretary of State, Dr Mowlam, may propose, one side will very likely consider themselves asked to give more than the other. And both sides claim and very likely believe that they have given too much in the past.
And yet, remarkably, there are signals that some people on both sides recognise more has to be given. And there is awareness that the local issue simply has to be solved in its wider context. The potential for violence and for fear if Drumcree comes to another confrontation can scarcely be exaggerated. And people on both sides recognise that what they choose to do over coming days can determine the fate of others - perhaps to the point of life and death.
The decision of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Co-alition to keep supporters and wellwishers out of the area on Sunday is responsible, brave and generous. Whatever decision is taken on the parade, the chances of avoiding violence and injury must increase if numbers remain manageable. And there must be a positive recognition of Mr Robert McCartney's imaginative proposal that were the parade allowed to proceed by the authorities, the Orangemen, in a gesture of magnanimity, should waive their right to march. Their stature would be raised enormously and they would take the high moral ground.
Ultimately, Orange and Green must accommodate each other if Northern Ireland is to attain normality and if its children and grandchildren are to live in tolerance. That will take generosity of the kind which has seen the Saturday evening Mass discontinued at Harryville and of the kind which Mr McCartney is now urging on the Orangemen. It is a commodity which has never had strong roots in the North. Could we be witnessing its first stirrings?