The appalling murder of Rosemary Nelson, prominent Lurgan lawyer, human-rights campaigner, wife and mother will be condemned by all right-thinking people. The car bomb attack that took her life and devastated her family almost certainly represented a calculated attempt by fringe loyalists to damage the peace process and to prevent the implementation of the Belfast Agreement. They should not be allowed to succeed in their ambition. Rather than revive divisions and fears - or spark a round of sectarian murders - her killing should strengthen the resolve of both communities to reject violence for good and to embrace the promise of a new beginning.
The choice of victim in this instance, no more than the timing, points to motivation. Her death was designed not only to strike fear into the broader nationalist community but to poison, still further, relations between the security forces and nationalists in the area. Ms Nelson was a doughty campaigner. She accompanied a delegation of Garvaghy Road residents which met the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, last month. She was engaged in seeking compensation for 200 local residents because of the RUC's handling of the Drumcree parade. She took on high-profile republican and nationalist cases in this sectarian town.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the murder was an attack on the peace process and the vast majority of people on the island of Ireland who supported it. The British Prime Minister described her murder as a disgusting act of barbarity and promised no effort would be spared in bringing those responsible to justice. That is as it should be. Concerns raised by Sinn Fein about possible collusion between the security forces and loyalists in her death - as in the case of Patrick Finucane nine years ago - make it absolutely vital that an immediate and thorough investigation be held, including a forensic examination of the device that killed her. It is difficult to see what possible motivation the security forces could have in this matter but, given the fear and outrage within the local nationalist community, the fullest investigation should be conducted as a matter of urgency. And the findings should be made public.
The timing of the murder coincides with important meetings in the United States this week between senior Northern Ireland politicians, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and President Clinton. While such contacts are not, of themselves, expected to break the impasse over arms decommissioning and the establishment of a Northern executive, they have the potential to make progress. Only three weeks remain before the first anniversary of the Belfast Agreement and difficult and dangerous decisions have to be taken. The killing of Ms Nelson and last night's disturbances in Lurgan will make a resolution even more difficult.
But nobody thought it would be easy. Delays in implementing the most difficult aspects of the Belfast Agreement have been anticipated. The sectarian divisions and conflicts the Belfast Agreement seeks to resolve have poisoned relations between the two communities for generations and they will not yield easily. Fear and distrust is part of the fabric of life in Northern Ireland. The Belfast Agreement was designed as an antidote to it. But it will take time and great political courage to create the space for that medicine to work. Those who admired the commitment of Rosemary Nelson to the underprivileged and to the concepts of justice and equality under the law would serve her memory well by ensuring all aspects of the Belfast Agreement are implemented.