At this dangerous time, David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party must not be deflected from their responsibilities to the electorate of Northern Ireland by engaging fully in the multi-party talks at Stormont. There is a need for cool heads and steady nerves. Yesterday's huge bomb at Markethill in south Armagh was clearly designed to forestall the opening of negotiations involving the SDLP, Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Progressive Unionist Party and the Ulster Democratic Party. But, thankfully, Mr Trimble and his colleagues appear to have shrugged off the calculated and cold-blooded attempt by republican elements to force them out of the talks process.
The choice of Markethill as the target for the van bomb had everything to do with the particularly strong support the Ulster Unionist Party enjoys there. Happily, no one was killed. But the fact that a quite sophisticated device of 300 to 400 pounds was detonated has fuelled unionist suspicions that the Provisional IRA was at least tacitly involved. This has been denied by the IRA. And suspicion has also fallen on the Continuity Army Council, which is virulently opposed to the talks process and to the IRA's ceasefire. This atrocity may well be duplicated in the weeks ahead by the maverick Loyalist Volunteer Force, which is equally determined to prevent an equitable political settlement emerging between the two communities.
One of the more heartening developments in Northern Ireland in recent days concerned opinion poll findings, which showed that the great majority of voters favoured the involvement of political parties in negotiations aimed at securing a political settlement. This attitude was reflected right across the political spectrum, even amongst supporters of the Democratic Unionist Party which has, along with the UKUP, boycotted the talks. It is a case of the electorate giving a lead to the politicians.
Mr Ken Maginnis of the UUP spoke last night of the need to make political progress and to move forward. In that regard, he emphasised the need for the UUP to reach prior agreement on the procedures and the agenda to be followed in the Stormont talks process. There was, he said, no question of his party abdicating its responsibilities. And it would not back down in the face of violence and intimidation. Such a commitment is to be applauded. It reinforces a general expectation that the Ulster Unionists and the two smaller loyalist parties will immediately enter into intense bi-lateral discussions with Senator Mitchell on the mechanisms to be adopted in the talks, before full-blooded negotiations open with the SDLP and Sinn Fein at an early date.