We should be conscious of this from the similarities of the rhetoric emanating from ostensibly opposing quarters - the ritual condemnations, the repeated impossible demands. The two syndromes are also mutually self-perpetuating. In their efforts to backtrack on the Belfast Agreement, unionists gained enormous moral encouragement from the renewed repetition of old mantras in the South, and felt vindicated by the fact that most of the public voices here have supported their stances and version of history. But this does not follow. Moderate southern nationalism's need to wash its hands, to show the world it has moved beyond all these incomprehensible tribal hatreds, is itself part of the problem.
Nobody has clean hands.
For three decades, mainstream unionism stood back mouthing anti-violence platitudes, secure in the knowledge that the British army, the RUC and the loyalist paramilitaries were doing its dirty work. We in the Republic, whether we take one side, the other or neither, are no more clean than anyone else. When you factor in the various desires for exculpation, and the extent to which Southern attitudes are an important contributor to the internal mix and external perceptions of the conflict, it is clear that the voice of Southern nationalism has been a central element in the creation of the present impasse. Because we are unwilling to place our own desire for exoneration to one side, we risk pushing the North back towards the abyss.