The British Prime Minister has agreed that the "shared sorrow" provoked by the murders of Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn offers "a beacon of hope" for the future of Northern Ireland. Uniting the House of Commons in condemnation of the arson attack which claimed their lives in Ballymoney at the weekend, Mr Tony Blair told Labour MP Ms Kate Hoey: "What is important, although it seems strange to say it in the light of the appalling and evil tragedy of the murder of those three young children, is that we will overcome these latest difficulties."
Mr Blair endorsed Ms Hoey's praise for the conduct of the RUC, and paid tribute to the leadership of the First and Deputy First Ministers, Mr David Trimble and Mr Seamus Mallon, who had "shown what the future of Northern Ireland could be".
Mr Blair told MPs: "People have now voted for peace in Northern Ireland in the referendum and in the Assembly elections . . . They have shown their will over the past few days for those extremists not to be able to set the agenda."
And as parties on all sides of the Commons deplored the events surrounding the Orange Order protest at Drumcree, Dr Mo Mowlam, the Northern Ireland Secretary, signalled the government's determination to keep control of the political agenda and secure the speedy implementation of the Belfast agreement.
MPs will spend four days next week debating the Northern Ireland Bill, the substantive measure devolving powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly, and bringing the North-South bodies, the British-Irish Council, the Human Rights and Equality Commissions and other institutional arrangements into being. The government's intention is to complete all the Commons' stages of the Bill before MPs rise for the summer recess at the end of this month, with its passage through the House of Lords in the autumn.
Equality and human rights campaigners in the North allege that the Bill's provisions represent a dilution of the terms of the Belfast agreement. But the immediate focus last night again fell on the vexed question of decommissioning and Sinn Fein's eligibility to take its seats in the new Northern Ireland Executive.
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr Trimble, will face difficulty and embarrassment during the Commons debate on a Bill falling significantly short of the demands of most of his colleagues.
They will argue that the Bill is even less specific than that governing prisoner releases, and makes no linkage between Sinn Fein and the IRA in defining actions which can be taken against parties which lose the confidence of the Assembly regarding their commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic means.
But there were indications last night that the Conservative frontbench may not carry its opposition into the Division Lobbies, as it did on the 2nd and 3rd Readings on the Sentences Bill effecting provisions for a two-year programme of prisoner releases.
Mr Andrew Mackay, shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, is expected to table amendments to the Bill seeking a direct "linkage" between decommissioning and Sinn Fein entering the executive.
Mr Mackay and the party leadership faced fierce internal criticism from former Northern Ireland ministers over their handling of the prisoner release Bill. And in government circles there is an expectation that the Opposition will be less enthusiastic about aligning with the anti-agreement forces after events surrounding Drumcree. That expectation was bolstered yesterday when Mr Mackay said: "The axis between First Minister David Trimble and his deputy Seamus Mallon has held in the most difficult circumstances, and that bodes extremely well for the future."