FURTHER meetings between Government officials and Sinn Fein are expected to take place shortly following the first face to face discussions between the sides in just under two months.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr, Gerry Adams, who led a delegation in talks at Dublin Castle yesterday, described the prime ministerial ban on meetings with his party as "inconsistent".
If the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, or the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, sought a meeting with the Government, it would "quite rightly" be granted, but such discussions could not take place between Sinn Fein and Ministers, he said. He called for a "root and branch review of the Government's position".
The delegations discussed the situation in Northern Ireland in the light of Drumcree, with Sinn Fein briefing the Government on Northern nationalist anger at the actions of the RUC last week.
The officials stressed the crucial importance of a restoration of the IRA ceasefire, in the context of the political situation generally and the ban on ministerial contacts.
The officials and Sinn Fein had a "constructive and frank exchange of views" and more contacts are planned. According to Mr Adams, they focused on the fact that there could be no pretence of "business as usual" and they discussed coming events, particularly the Apprentice Boys parade next month in Derry.
Sinn Fein's meeting with officials was just one of several encounters between Leinster House politicians and representatives of Northern nationalists yesterday.
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, spent 75 minutes speaking to residents from the Garvaghy Road, the lower Ormeau Road and Derry. According to Mr John Gormley from the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community, Mr Bruton was "very knowledgeable, understanding and sympathetic" and wanted to know "our view from the streets".
The Taoiseach had also considered their suggestion that Orange marches be "internationalised" to involve EU politicians as observers at parades. It is understood, however, that the Government does not wish to see the issue internationalised in this way.
The residents' groups brought with them specimens plastic bullets fired by the RUC last week, saying that while they opposed their use against either loyalists or nationalists, statistics indicated the "disgracefully partisan way in which the RUC policed last week's incidents".
During the Portadown standoff, lasting 41/2 days, 662 plastic bullets were fired by the police. In the subsequent 21/2 days of disturbances in nationalist areas, 5,341 were fired.
They had "no confidence in the ill defined review body" on parades announced by the British, government. It would have been more appropriate to announce an independent, internationally based public inquiry into the total breakdown of law and order last week, "and the failure of the RUC to act with even a semblance of impartiality".
Following a meeting with the residents, and later with the Sinn Fein delegation, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, indicated that he favoured an internationalisation of the problem. Fianna Fail MEPs would invite their French and Portuguese counterparts in the European Parliament to attend the Apprentice Boys parade on August 10th as observers.
Mr Ahern told journalists he had always said the RUC was in need of reform. The confidence of the nationalist community in the police was now "at an all time low". Disbandment of the force was, however, "too simple". Residents wanted normal policing and whoever one spoke to now recorded "no confidence" in the RUC.
Mr Ahern said he refused to accept that there was no political involvement in the RUC Chief Constable's decision to force the march through the Garvaghy Road last Thursday.
The implications of last week's events for the Apprentice Boys parade next month dominated much of yesterday's discussions. Ms Margaret Gallagher of the Bogside Residents' Group said her organisation had received no reply from the Apprentice Boys when it wrote seeking a meeting.
"We are trying to resolve it by asking them to return to the normal route they used to take. Why, after the ceasefires, have they tried to again go down that part of the Derry walls that overlooks the Bogside?" she said.