With three brutal deaths in a week the levels of tension in the North have escalated dangerously. Yesterday they moved up another ratchet with the abduction and assassination of Mr Sean Brown, the chairman of the Wolfe Tones GAA Club in Bellaghy, Co Derry. Mr Brown, a father of six children, was a respected and inoffensive man with a strong dedication to his local community. He was abducted from outside the clubhouse and shot In the head. Someone planned his death to effect maximum provocation.
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, last night described the death of Mr Brown as a "calculated and cold-blooded sectarian outrage". This was a vile act designed to foster sectarianism and commuity division. It also illustrates how easily the spiral of murder or reprisal can take off. This week the murder score is a man for a man. Someone, somewhere, no doubt is laying plans for a "spectacular".
At this writing, there is still no confirmation that loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for the murder but few will doubt their involvement, notwithstanding Mr David Ervine's declaration that the Loyalist cease-fire still holds. It is difficult to come to the conclusion that this murder is anything other than a reprisal for the killing of a young policeman bay the INLA in Belfast before the weekend. The Loyalist ceasefire may exist in name but in reality it is more fragile than at any time since October, 1994.
The challenge now as identified by the Church of Ireland primate, Dr Robin Eames, at yesterday's General Synod is to prevent the North from lapsing into what he called a "new nightmare of suffering. That nightmare extends into several different manifestations however. At its worst it embraces cold, deliberate and cruel murder. At another level it embraces the sort of tribal triumphalism which burst forth last July at Drumcree. They are not unconnected.
In the run up to the marching season there is a particular onus on public representatives and churchmen to calm the sectarian temperature and to work towards compromise and conciliation. It is clear that the Church of Ireland is divided about Drumcree and this has raised awkward questions of identity and loyalty within the church.
But as every day passes, it becomes more imperative that there must be no Drumcree III; there must be no recurrence of a situation in which the patient business of rebuilding community relations is thrown away in a stage-managed confrontation. The Secretary of State Dr Mowlam has signalled that she will not allow mob-rule to undermine the authority of the state. It is also expected that today's Queen's Speech will include a commitment to establish an independent parades commission as recommended by Dr Peter North's review on parades and marches although this is unlikely to be in place for this year's marching season.
But the ones is not jest on Government to heal divisions as Dr Eames noted yesterday much can be done to defuse potential flashpoints at Drumcree and elsewhere by local dialogue between local people. Dr Mowlam is anxious that the kind of mediation efforts outlined in the North report be used to avert conflict. This is the correct approach. But it is certain that it will not succeed it cannot even be tried against a background of continuing, cold-blooded murder such as we have seen over recent days.