IF THE Omagh bomb was designed to blow the Ulster peace process apart, then our surmise that it would have the opposite effect is surely demonstrated by the historic declaration by Sinn Fein that violence should be a thing of the past.

This, after all, comes from the mouthpiece of the Provisional IRA which, until its ceasefire, was the major terrorist force in Northern Ireland and beyond.

If, then, its commitment to the peace process has been in doubt - especially while it retains its arsenal of weapons and explosives - the unequivocal statement by Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams that violence should be done away with should make clear how firmly mainstream republicanism is now on board.

True, there may be an element of stage-management about this declaration, its timing and Downing Street's welcome for it - both as an overture to the severe new anti-terrorist laws being rushed through a recalled Commons today and as a trophy for US president Bill Clinton to claim as a peacemaker on his arrival in Belfast tomorrow. And though it is essential that these words are now swiftly confirmed by the IRA's decommissioning of its arms, there seems no doubt that Sinn Fein is playing a serious part in leading the peace process to that juncture and convincing sceptical unionists that they can work together.

But there is far more than magnanimity at work in all of this.

Sinn Fein has evidently understood the widespread public desire in Ulster that is forcing its once bitterly-opposed politicians to work together - that of a once-divided community willing to live together.

That was made clear in the referendums on the Good Friday agreement.

It was also spelled out in the reactions to both the murders of three brothers at Ballymoney during the Orangemen's stand-off at Drumcree and to the Omagh bombing.

Then, rather than splitting along the old sectarian gulfs, the Northern Ireland community came together more strongly still.

It has left the extremist splinter groups outside the peace process so marginalised and isolated that they have no political refuge and it has left violence no future either - just as Sinn Fein now accepts.

And, encouragingly, the peace process is advanced.

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