It was perhaps too good to be true; that talks could take place under the chairmanship of Mr John Hume between the Orange Order and the Garvaghy Road residents to avoid Drumcree III. Last night doubts were cast on whether the talks would take place at all, when the Grand Master of the Orange Order declared he would not meet anyone associated with Sinn Fein or the IRA. But the fact that there is an apparent desire for dialogue must raise hopes that middle ground opinion can prevail over extremism to prevent a repeat of last July's confrontation.
Mr Hume hopes to chair talks between representatives of the Order and the Residents Coalition at Garvaghy Road. The aim will be to seek a compromise which will allow the Order to exercise what it describes as its historic entitlement to march while respecting the right of the residents not to have to endure intimidation and shows of triumphalism. If Mr Hume's efforts are to be attended by success he will, indeed, have to work the oracle.
It would be to the great credit of the Order, and in particular its Grand Master, Mr Robert Saulters, if it were willing to accept Mr Hume's proposed talks. Orangeism, by definition, is not an inclusive or embracing movement. But the Grand Master and his supporters represent a quality of tolerance and accommodation which would be unrecognisable to many of the wilder men of the organisation. And Mr Saulter's critics will be fortified in their anger by a statement from Sinn Fein's president, Mr Gerry Adams, expressing support for the proposed talks.
There are bigots aplenty in the Orange Order. But there are also men of conscience and reflection. Serious pressures are building within its ranks and hard questions, long evaded, are being addressed. They merely reflect the questions which have to be addressed by members of both communities in the North in the immediately measurable future. Blind insistence on so called ancient rights on either side - will lead in only one direction. That is back to the deadly stand off of last July and to the accompanying tit for tat murder campaigns of the paramilitaries.
Whether the view is taken that the authorities ought to have stood firm in July or whether the better decision was to allow the marchers go through, moderate people know that what was made manifest at Drumcree was a prospect of mass disorder on a scale not seen in the North since 1969. Responsible leaders in both communities know that they went to the very edge of the abyss and that next time it may not even be possible to pull back.
It is not easy to see where a mediator can look to achieve a workable accommodation between marchers and residents for the coming season. Even moderate Orangemen seem to believe that there is no alternative to marching the Garvaghy Road in July. They describe some of those who represent the residents as supporters of terrorism. The residents, for their part, cannot accept that the march is other than a ritual of humiliation, the majority showing the minority who owns the road - literally. A degree of comfort may be taken from the fact that the Grand Master has so far managed to hold his ground against those of his brethren who are opposed to any compromise. It is surely better to talk now than to walk into a maelstrom in a few weeks.