ULTIMATELY, it will not matter how the stalemate of the Northern Ireland peace process was broken - by the renewed IRA bombing campaign forcing fresh compromise from the British government, or by the determination of London and Dublin to press on regardless in the search for ways to end the deadlock - just as long as a lasting peace is achieved.

And that, surely, is the prayer of the people of Ulster, all Ireland and beyond - one made more fervent by the glimpse of normality, calm and recovering prosperity that the now-shattered ceasefire brought.

But now, we think, those hopes are at a crucial crossroads where the signpost points to a last chance for peace. And the IRA is placed firmly on the spot of having - with the eyes of the peace-seeking majority of Ireland's people upon them - to choose the path towards it or that of more bloodshed and with no end in sight.

And, surely, they will be condemned by history, Ireland and the world if they fail to keep the peace process alive - now that, in the face of so much concession and a massive will for peace, they refuse to concede themselves. For hope, we look to the cautious welcome by Sinn Fein for the declaration by the British and Irish governments of a fixed date of June 10 for the start of the all-party talks on the future of Northern Ireland.

This, of course, is a key concession by John Major, with him having abandoned his refusal to set a date for the negotiations without the IRA beginning to give up its weapons.

And though this is may be offset by London's insistence on making elections in Ulster a key component of the path to the talks table - a measure which provokes nationalist suspicions because of the loyalists' in-built majority there - it remains a demand that Sinn Fein had previously demanded and has now got.

Will the IRA accept this olive branch and declare a renewed ceasefire? Unless they do, there will no place for Sinn Fein at the talks table - and no peace and no future for Ulster. Ruthless and heartless though the men of violence have shown themselves to be in 25 years of terror, they are at the point now where they must prove themselves to be other than mindless - as they will be if they spurn this last chance and choose renewed bloodshed; this time, with the vast majority of Ireland's people, in whose name they purport to act, loathing them for having thrown the peace away.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.