THE Rev Ian Paisley was in vintage form last Friday night in Portadown. He had the usual targets in his sights and a few more besides. The Pope, the Alliance Party, the Fair Employment Commission, "murdering scum" in the IRA, Bill Clinton, the local Jesuits, the Irish government, all part of a grand conspiracy to destroy the Protestants of Ulster.
But he added, referring to another Fenian plot: "You won't breed us out, you won't burn us out. You might as well attempt to turn back the tide with a spoon as try to stop loyal Ulster Protestants from marching along their traditional routes."
We shall see. The rally was organised by the Loyalist Solidarity Right to March group and one of the drummers in the Portadown Defenders Band carried a slogan "Drumcree 97 - We'll be there!"
The organisers had predicted a crowd of 10,000. But 1,500 to 2,000 seemed closer to the mark. The loudest cheers were for Harold Gracey, Grand Master of the local Orange lodge, who sounded somewhat hesitant about the company in which he found himself.
Seamus Mallon, among others, has linked Dr Paisley's speech at Portadown to the burning of Catholic churches over the weekend. Both communities have suffered terribly at the hands of sectarian arsonists. Over the past week two Catholic churches, two Church of Ireland halls and a Baptist church in east Belfast have been attacked.
What Dr Robin Eames has described as "the cancer of sectarianism" has been eating away at the body politic in Northern Ireland since Drumcree last year. I know, from the troubled response I get from readers, that it is a matter of great concern to people of goodwill right across the religious spectrum. What has gone wrong in the way people receive the Christian message that they feel justified in burning down a place where members of another church gather to worship?
IF THERE is any comfort to be drawn from the events of the past week it is that senior politicians, as well as church leaders, have come together to express their anger at such sectarian attacks, wherever they have occurred. David Trimble was one of the first people to visit the Catholic church at Mullavilly in Co Armagh and to express his sympathy to the parish priest.
These outward demonstrations of cross community solidarity should happen automatically, but this has not been the case in the past. Too often the pressures of tribal loyalty have meant that politicians and clergymen have kept their heads down, preferring to follow the old adage "Whatever you say, say nothing." The almost general silence of Catholic priests, with a very few exceptions, on the boycott directed against small Protestant shops and businesses in the wake of Drumcree is one example of this.
On the other side, a small number of unionists have travelled to Harryville to express support for Massgoers. Robert Saulters, the new Grand Master of the Orange Order, has been both brave and determinedly conciliatory in this respect but (as far as I can ascertain) neither David Trimble nor any of his parliamentary colleagues in the UUP have been seen there, despite the fact that the weekly pickets constitute a disgraceful display of sectarian intimidation.
The reason given is that Harryville is in Ian Paisley's constituency and to intervene on the DUP leader's own turf would be taken as a unfriendly act within the unionist political family.
It seems that these attitudes may now be changing. A fierce battle has been under way for the hearts and minds of the 80,000 members of the Orange Order and, by extension, for the broader unionist community. What happens during the forthcoming marching season is a more important issue for Northern Ireland than who wins the general election or the timing of a new IRA ceasefire.
If the leaders of the Orange Order do manage to persuade their members to take the path of compromise rather than confrontation, and if this is matched by an appropriately generous response from the nationalist community, it will be a victory that will confound the pessimists and offer real hope for the future.
We have already been offered some grounds for optimism in the efforts of men like Robert Saulters and local Orange leaders, aided by the skills of the Northern Ireland Mediation Network. Whether they will succeed is still far from certain. Inevitably, the hardliners are more visible and more vocal. They express genuine fears which cannot be ignored, but how widespread these are is very difficult to assess.
Each day seems to bring a different view of which side within the Orange Order is winning the argument. But the fact that the debate is taking place at all represents progress from the days when no discussion was possible and any suggestion of compromise on traditional routes was seen as a sellout.
It's almost certainly true to say, and recent opinion polls confirm, that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland are appalled at the prospect of a rerun of Drumcree and desperately hope that it can be avoided this year. But, if this is to happen, it will require resolute and courageous political leadership in both communities.
It is probably too much to hope that David Trimble will be prepared to engage in negotiations with his constituents on the Garvaghy Road. But there are other ways in which the Ulster Unionist leader, and those of his colleagues who are members of the Orange Order, can make it clear that they favour a compromise which averts the threat of violence.
FOR David Trimble to demonstrate his public disapproval of acts of sectarian violence is a welcome gesture, but he needs to do and say more to put clear blue water between himself and those who argue that the long term interests of the unionist community will be best served by a third outing for the Spirit of Drumcree.
Mr Trimble himself must know that this isn't so. He has been warned by his own supporters in the business community of the disastrous effects which a repetition of last year's violence would have on the economy of Northern Ireland and on relationships between the communities. Barring a major political upset, he will have to operate after May 1st in a much less favourable context than that in which he and his party were able to dictate policy on the hoof to a dying Conservative government.
A secure Labour administration is likely to be less patient with the unionists, particularly if the IRA has the wit to call an early and credible ceasefire. Sooner or later Mr Trimble is going to have to lead his party into serious negotiations about the future of Northern Ireland. That means he is going to have to start learning to win the trust of his nationalist countrymen and women.
He could make no better start than to show that he rejects the confrontation that has disfigured the Orange marching season in recent years and that he is ready to bring a new spirit of reconciliation to the little churchyard at Drumcree.