NATIONALISTS in Northern Ireland felt "betrayed" when that Orange parade marched down the Garvaghy Road last Sunday. If the Northern Ireland Secretary didn't know what betrayal felt like then, she certainly does now. Rarely in the annals of treachery can a leak have been so damaging and so well-timed.

Dr Mowlam went into damage-limitation mode yesterday. She claimed the document was an "initial consideration by officials"; she had not endorsed it and insisted the full range of options be kept under review.

The document certainly appears to have been endorsed by her director of policing and security, Mr John Martin Steele. He is believed to be the "JMS" who wrote on the first page: "I am sure this is the only way open to us that has any chance of success.

Almost to the last minute before Drumcree the Secretary of State said she was endeavouring to secure a local accommodation. There is now a strong nationalist view that this was a smokescreen and her mind was made up well in advance.

This theory gains support from the fact that this document, circulated 16 days before Drumcree, begins with the words: "It now seems clear that no, local accommodation will emerge.

Before the proximity talks arranged for Hillsborough Castle on June 27th and 28th, Garvaghy residents said they believed the exercise to be a public relations gimmick.

It is certainly true that the public relations aspect of the Hillsborough exercise are not ignored in this document. The author is conscious of the need to "reduce the negative reaction and perceptions" of whatever side was disappointed when the Chief Constable announced his decision on the parade.

The document also stresses the need to demonstrate that the government was "playing a pro-active and imaginative role".

Perhaps the most damaging admission in the document is that, whereas the Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, had "genuinely" not made a decision, "the consensus among the key players - the Secretary of State, the Minister of State, the Chief Constable, the GOC (General Officer Commanding the British army), Parades Commission Chairman, - is that, if there is no local accommodation, a controlled parade on the Garvaghy Road is the least worst outcome".

This sentence is already etched in the minds of many nationalists. They think of it as they listen to Dr Mowlam explaining herself on radio and TV and it will also come into their minds when they consider the future efforts of the Parades Commission chairman, Mr Alistair Graham, to tackle contentious marches.

The "key players" had arrived at a common view that, without local agreement, they should go for a no-frills parade by the Orangemen while at the same time offering the Garvaghy residents "offsetting measures" to reconcile them to their fate.

IN Dr Mowlam's early "honeymoon phase, the broadcaster Eamonn Mallie (ironically the journalist who broke the story) dubbed her the woman who "put the Mo in momentum". This document also stresses the need to "maintain some momentum" before the Hillsborough talks but, ever-conscious of the public relations angle, it argues that Dr Mowlam's "high level of exposure" should probably be scaled down. There may also be a hint of civil service stuffiness here.

Seeking to "micro-manage" the talks process, the document urges that the Hillsborough invitations be delayed lest the Orangemen or, more likely, the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, might have time "to devise plausible pre-conditions which might scupper the whole exercise".

It would be important to brief "key influencers" in advance to ensure the two sides accepted the invitation.

These included political and religious leaders, but one of the best- known figures on the list told The Irish Times he was never contacted, much less "briefed".

So what "steer" were the participants to be given? A controlled march was the chef's main recommendation from the menu.

"The Secretary of State proposes that the negotiations should address that as the base case for discussion", the document states.

But in one of many memorable phrases, it urges that consideration be given to "the way in which we play this reality in".

This is the language of the poker player and the PR guru combined. A passing reference is made to the possibility of banning the march, which "would not be excluded from the negotiations".

However, the prime objective was to discover if the participants could agree on getting some "Orange feet" on the Garvaghy Road and "persuading McKenna (and Sinn Fein) that it is time to play for the draw".

There is a note of antipathy towards "McKenna", viz Breandan Mac Cionnaith, spokesman for the Garvaghy residents, who seems to be viewed as a clever but unmanageable-native chieftain who will "scupper" invitations if he gets them too early and who might "seek to confront the Orangemen in person" in the refined surroundings of Hillsborough Castle.

However, it might be possible to get "McKenna" into direct negotiations with the Orangemen at some stage if he would only walk under the spear and "acknowledge his terrorist past and disclaim any present influence by Sinn Fein".

The document makes no reference to the possibility that banning the parade might result in a loyalist shooting-spree against Catholics. This was apparently a key factor in the Chief Constable's decision to let the march through in the end.