Stop paying lip service to peace

THE prize of lasting peace, something people in the South take for granted but which remains an unfulfilled dream for the embattled nationalist and loyalist communities of the North, is tantalisingly close.

But the brief window of opportunity is now in danger of closing on the joint British and Irish government bid to secure a breakthrough in the Good Friday peace process.

At best, today looks like the only realistic option for a decisive meeting at which the peace blueprint aimed at showing the way forward, and especially restoring the North's suspended power-sharing government, can finally be unveiled by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.