Drumcree 2000 has come and gone and, so far, appears to have passed relatively peacefully. There will be widespread relief that the annual parade and war memorial service did not end with a stand-off between Orangemen and security forces at the barrier preventing access to the Garvaghy Road. Such outcomes in the past have descended into riotous assault against the police, and copycat action elsewhere in Northern Ireland. In the event, there was restraint which seemed unlikely at the beginning of the week and for that, all should be grateful.
Early yesterday, events did not bode well. Those behind the car-bomb attack on the RUC station in Stewartstown, Co Tyrone, (and we must assume they are republicans of some variety) must have hoped to kill police officers and thereby provoke a response from loyalists. The bomb is a stark reminder that within republicanism there remain men and women of deeply evil intent who are opposed to the democratic will exercised by all people of this island, as expressed in the Belfast Agreement. In this, if nothing else, they make common cause with the Orange Order, which urged people to reject the Agreement and which remains opposed to its implementation.
All people of goodwill will applaud the statement on Saturday from the Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, who strongly condemned the seemingly overlapping agendas of the Orange Order in Portadown and its loyalist paramilitary supporters. Using words his co-religionists will readily understand, Dr Eames said he saw nothing of Christ on the hill at Drumcree, nor on the streets of Northern Ireland during nightly protests last week by supporters of the Orange Order. Dr Eames's blunt demand that the Orangemen behave themselves before and after using Drumcree parish church yesterday may have done much to temper the zeal of some, with the result that the parade was largely trouble free. In a further contribution when the service had ended, Dr Eames called on the Orangemen to disperse peacefully and said if those who called for further protests today could not guarantee they would be peaceful, they risked "the complete discrediting of their cause".
The Portadown District Master, Mr Harold Gracey (who refused to condemn loyalist violence last week), and his fellow officers in Portadown should take note. And they should dwell on Dr Eames's comments about the future. Traditions could only flourish in peace, said the Archbishop - "talking and listening is the only real way forward". Dr Eames's wise words and timely intervention will not be diminished by repetition and he should continue to use his good office to put distance between the Church of Ireland and the Orange Order, and, to the extent that he can, help effect a sensible and fair resolution to the destabilising saga of Drumcree.
With Orange protests across Northern Ireland planned for today and the Twelfth yet to come, it is too early to say whether the danger of widespread civil disorder has passed. But one thing is clear - as it has been all along to most people: there will be no lasting peace in Northern Ireland, no lasting accommodation between traditions, until both sides talk to each other and learn to understand each other's fears. The sooner Mr Gracey and his colleagues are exchanging views with the residents of the Garvaghy Road the better for the people of Northern Ireland.