The days gone by remain behind us, A mournful line of burnt-out candles
The lines from the Greek poet Cavafy could be used to sum up the talks process at Stormont's Castle Buildings up to now. The talks proper began on June 10th last year and progress has been made at a snail's pace. Sinn Fein may have come in, but the Democratic Unionists and UK Unionists have walked out. The decommissioning issue blocked progress for months on end until, in one final massive heave, the two governments overcame that obstacle - for the time being anyway.
Substantive negotiations are meant to have been in progress for several months, but you wouldn't notice it. The parties "surfed the agenda", then went into what was called a "review plenary" but there was precious little to review.
David Andrews put his foot in it with some ill-chosen words. His use of the G-word, for government, in connection with the North-South bodies had the Ulster Unionists jumping up and down. In the process, David Trimble managed to steal some of the thunder from the DUP annual conference, so perhaps he should be grateful to Mr Andrews. Yet again, one was forced to the conclusion that Senator George Mitchell is a better chairman than some of the participants deserve. Adroitly, he sidelined the Andrews affair by proposing - and securing - a new talks format.
At a stroke, he reduced the number of participants by two-thirds. A smaller working group - maximum two dozen - is charged with the task of driving the process forward. Each party is to be represented by leaders and deputy leaders, so we at last have a situation where the top boys and girls are sitting around a smaller table in a smaller room.
First reports yesterday were positive and cautiously upbeat. One observer commented that, "Mitchell has taken the process by the scruff of the neck". By December 15th, the leaders are due to present a report to a full plenary session identifying the key issues to be resolved in a settlement.
We've had this restrained optimism before. The intensive bilaterals were meant to come up with a similar list but were overshadowed by Mr Trimble's meetings with the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach.
Ironically, the success of the Ahern-Trimble encounter injected fresh optimism into the talks but that gave way to renewed gloom after the Andrews gaffe. Now the process is back on the rails, at least until someone steps on another banana skin. Peace does indeed come dropping slow. While the parameters of a possible agreement are being sketched out, action is also expected on the physical perimeter of the talks. It was understood yesterday the Long Kesh-type fence around Castle Buildings would be reduced to a metre and prettied up with flowers.
The Ulster Unionists have been making ominous noises about decommissioning, and that issue could yet come back to haunt the talks. The parties might turn with profit to an article on "Fianna Fail and Arms Decommissioning 1923-32" in the latest issue of the magazine, History Ireland.
Nobody used the word "decommissioning" in those days but Fianna Fail was bedevilled by the very similar question of IRA arms dumps. Finally, Sean Lemass put the issue in a realistic context when he said: "The dumps are harmless if no one goes near them; they are dangerous only if there is hate between Irishmen . . . all danger from the dumps will be removed when the causes of ill-feeling between Irishmen are removed." Removing the "causes of ill-feeling" between the inhabitants of this island is not a bad summation of what the Stormont talks are about. The confined and semi-secretive nature of the proceedings is not perhaps conducive to educating public opinion about what is going on, but participants argue that this is a necessary evil if the parties are to move away from entrenched positions.
Some day, however, the talks are going to have to move into the clear light of day. The final package, if it is agreed, has to be put to referendums on both sides of the Border.
It will be an extraordinary democratic exercise, the likes of which has not been seen since the so-called "Sinn Fein election" of 1918. A mass plebiscite, admittedly in different jurisdictions and with primacy given to the result north of the Border, will adjudicate on the efforts of the parties at Stormont.
This will lead to a torrent of debate throughout the island. The unionist community will have to choose between dire warnings that their birthright is being sold and equally doom-laden predictions that if they do not accept what is on offer, the two governments will impose something far worse.
Nationalists and republicans will be asked to set a precondition on their cherished objective of a united Ireland by making it subject to the consent of a majority in the partitioned six counties.
To some extent, the debate has already begun in Northern Ireland. South of the Border it has not really started. The notion that supporters of the Rev Ian Paisley might end up having a say on the deployment of tourism resources in, say, Tipperary, has not really sunk home. The ambivalent attitudes in the South towards Northern nationalists which emerged during the presidential election are due to face their biggest test since 1969. Republicans will be asked to swallow unpalatable decisions on the basis that they have been approved by a majority of the people on the whole island. Does that man Mitchell realise what he has started?