SDLP members should be well pleased by the energy and commitment displayed at their party's annual conference under its new leader. Mr Mark Durkan went on the offensive against Sinn Féin and lifted the spirits of supporters in Armagh over the weekend. Emphasising the democratic credentials of the SDLP and its long-term commitment to constitutional politics, Mr Durkan contrasted that with Sinn Féin's linkage to the IRA through the republican movement.
The message to nationalists was stark: if they wanted constitutional politics to work, to end paramilitary violence and bring about acceptable, cross-community policing, they should vote for the SDLP in the coming Assembly elections.
Mr Durkan didn't directly blame Sinn Féin for the collapse of the Northern Ireland institutions. But he shredded, with dripping sarcasm, the pretence that the leadership of Sinn Féin and the IRA is not intimately interwoven.
The delegates loved it. It was a no-holds-barred speech and it reflected the persistent pressure Sinn Féin has applied as it seeks to supplant the SDLP as the largest nationalist party. But criticism was not confined to Sinn Féin. Mr Durkan expressed disappointment that the Ulster Unionist Party had failed to build trust in the Belfast Agreement and that it appeared obsessed with republican violence.
The tone of the conference was set during the opening session when, under the banner "Leadership for All", Ms Brid Rodgers challenged republicans to recognise that maintaining a private army and holding seats in government were incompatible in every respect. Only when Sinn Féin endorsed a representative, accountable and effective policing service for all the people of Northern Ireland, she insisted, would it clearly signal that the war was truly over.
Her concerns over paramilitary activities and punishment beatings were subsequently brought into sharp focus by a barbaric paramilitary attack* that ended with a young man being nailed to a fence in Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast.
Seeking to convince unionists of the long-term benefits of the Belfast Agreement, Mr Durkan emphasised that the protections afforded the nationalist minority at present would also be available to unionists in the event of population changes. In the coming weeks, strenuous efforts will be made by members of the Irish, British and United States administrations to establish just what will be required by the various parties to reinstate the Northern institutions.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the Northern Secretary of State, Mr Paul Murphy, will meet on Wednesday in that regard. As in the past, the SDLP will be called upon to play a pivotal role in these developments. And, judging by their weekend conference, members are looking forward to the challenge.
*Correction: An earlier version of this editorial attributed the attack on the man in Dunmurry to "republican bullyboys". In fact, it is probable the attack was carried out by loyalist paramilitary elements.