With politics still becalmed in Northern Ireland, flashbacks to the worst of the Troubles have grabbed attention: the hopeless search for a teenage boy "disappeared" by the IRA 30 years ago, Catholics who support the semi-reformed police told they are now "legitimate targets" for the "Real IRA", and loyalist abuse of Catholic mourners at a cemetery in north Belfast, Fionnuala O Connor.
The last included a couple of fresh elements. Loyalists object because the cemetery holds Catholic as well as Protestant dead. This may be the crudest expression possible of disquiet at the growing number of Catholics in the district. Condemnation for the desecration of graves and threats to the parish priest who conducted an annual blessing service came promptly from a range of prominent Protestant voices, including a bishop and loyalist spokesmen. In sharp contrast, the local Ulster Unionist councillor blamed the priest for being slow to clean graffiti off his church.
To many Catholics the refusal of political unionism to face Protestant sectarianism and admit communal responsibility for paramilitaries weakens unionists when they proclaim themselves standard-bearers of democracy. The parallel is that many Protestants think Catholics slow to disown dissident republicans, and shamingly reluctant to support the police. If there is a flood of Catholic resignations from the district policing partnerships, many Protestants will say "told you so".
Up to a point there is clarity: the dissidents get no political support. To judge from the level of aborted bombings, police on both sides of the Border have a steady flow of information, some of which must come from the community.
But for many nationalists, reform of policing is unfinished business. The spate of threats against Catholic members of the partnerships brought a muddled response from mainstream republican leaders. Clearly stung by the police suggestion that the Provisional IRA rather than dissidents were responsible for the threats in and around Cookstown Co Tyrone, Martin McGuinness made a forthright condemnation - but of threats in Derry, where dissidents were blamed.
Marian Quinn, the Derry woman whose husband's car was petrol-bombed after she had been sent bullets in the post and her daughter's car attacked, is a hard-working and popular campaigner on local issues in the Derry estate of Galliagh. Her standing was reflected in mainstream republican leadership reaction. The attacks on the Quinn family were "absolutely deplorable, unjust, cowardly": those responsible were "unrepresentative gangs, micro-groups", said Mr McGuinness. With the authority of a veteran IRA commander he added: "In the military sense they're absolutely useless."
Sinn Féin leaders and councillors strongly denied any mainstream involvement in the threats elsewhere - all of them west of the Bann, in the Westminster constituencies won by Sinn Féin in the last election. Local opinion was less sure. An observer on the ground took comfort from Sinn Féin's denial: "They clearly don't think their people want them to be doing this sort of thing." But he was not so sure that all the threats were by dissidents: "There are dissident Provos on this issue and even more on decommissioning and the other moves they'll have to make." A certain level of unhappiness among grassroots republicans is inevitable if Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are back into a process, or look as though they are, that demands movement on arms and a verifiable end to all IRA activity - however "verification" might happen. Sinn Féin acceptance of the new police service will have to be part of any eventual deal.
But there are enough allegations of collusion still outstanding, and enough collusion verified by reports like that of the Met commander John Stevens, to keep many unhappy at the prospect of signing up to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. "We're not cosying up to the cops," one SDLP partnership member insists. "You can stand outside forever saying it's not perfect. We're in there to hold them to account."
Other nationalists who despise the threats still think the SDLP endorsed policing too early. For many, the evidence of considerable agreement between the SDLP and unionist members of the Policing Board is less a sign of progress than an indication that SDLP internal criticism is ineffectual.
To some minds, the flurry of threats to coincide with new political talks is perfectly understandable, whether from critics still inside mainstream republicanism or the splinter groups. "It was a gift, wasn't it," says a clear-eyed student of republicanism. "Scores of names printed in the papers when they announced the partnerships - a ready-made list of "legitimate targets". All the dissidents had to do was smash car windows and set some fires: cheap publicity, cut-price terrorism. Widespread Catholic acceptance of the police, like Sinn Féin backing, remains to be won in a more costly settlement.