THE Catholic Primate, Cardinal Daly, said yesterday the greatest single contribution to the peace process at this time would be a reinstatement of the IRA ceasefire. He believed the conditions needed to make it possible could be put in place.
Speaking at a Mass for peace in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, Cardinal Daly also called for an independent public inquiry into the causes and consequences of the disturbances before and after the Drumcree march.
He said a truly independent inquiry was needed to establish or to disprove "the widespread perception that the RUC behaved in a partisan fashion, used disproportionate force, or otherwise failed to observe complete impartiality between the two communities. Only the truth would enable confidence in the police force and the civil authorities to be built gradually."
The cardinal said some parades and marches scheduled for the coming months were highly, or even dangerously controversial. It was essential that steps be taken now to ensure that new outbreaks of violence attendant upon parades and marches would not be allowed.
He welcomed the review of the parades problem announced by the Northern Secretary, and said decisions about parades were so fraught with political consequences that they must not be left to be taken by the Chief Constable.
"Government must openly assume its responsibilities in this regard", he said. "Parade organisers must be informed of decisions well in advance, and must be left in no doubt that decisions taken will be enforced.
"A heavy moral and civil responsibility rests upon the organisations and organisers concerned to engage in whatever discussion and mediation is needed in order to try to arrive at agreement in advance and to accept decisions lawfully taken.
He said he supported a suggestion made by the Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, that society had a right to expect some provision for adjudication, be it a judicial or other official body.
The cardinal also said the events of the past two weeks had underlined the urgent need for progress in the political talks, in which movement had been painfully slow.
"Unless the talks can move beyond the wranglings about procedural points, ground rules and other preliminary and relatively secondary matters, and get to grips with substantive issues, the whole process is in danger of running out of credibility", he said.
One of the basic aims in the talks must be for nationalists to try to reassure unionists that their unionist traditions and British identity were widely and sincerely respected in the nationalist community, he said.