DICK Spring was an elegant full-back who was worth more than the three

caps he received for pulling on the green jersey, and would have had

them but for a bad back.

It is not an infallible rule of thumb but I have found that decent

rugby players tend to carry qualities from the field into the rest of

their lives.

If Irish politics had been able to follow the example of Irish rugby,

totally integrated for more than 100 years with hardly a trace of

religious bigotry, the island would be a damned sight safer place,

instead of just a damned place.

Tit for tat, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, any atrocity you

can do I can do fouler, the killing goes on, and it will not be stopped

by mellifluous condemnations in the House, appeals by clergy of all

denominations nor by peace marches, however worthy all of these

activities may be. There has to be a political solution.

So whatever one thinks of John Hume, and I am inclined to give him the

benefit of the doubt, he is one of a handful of politicians able to act

as a mediator. As for Gerry Adams, he is certainly a man who has

consorted with killers and one is constantly revolted by his hypocrisy.

But hand on heart, has he any more blood on his record sheet than

Yasser Arafat, now hailed throughout the world as peacemaker? If our

Government can have no truck with Adams, how come we could negotiate

with Archbishop Makarios or Robert Mugabe -- or even the old Jomo

Kenyatta? Yesterday's terrorist can quickly become tomorrow's freeman of

our cities.

Before we even come to Adams, however, let us go back to Dick Spring.

The six principles which he enunciated in the Dail, and which have been

the basis for discussion between Albert Reynolds and John Major, surely

provide a starting point.

I heard the proposals being condemned on the radio by Ian Paisley

because they contained elements of the Adams-Hume initiative; that is

hardly a rational argument. How many more Shankills will it take to

start the talks?

Mr Spring suggests that no change can be made in the status of

Northern Ireland without the freely expressed consent of a majority of

the people. If the unionists don't like any suggested alterations to the

constitution, then they will not happen.

Am I being naive

or missing something here? I thought that was the unionists' stated

position.

Spring also suggests the republic must change its constitution so that

people in the whole of the island should be free ''to determine their

own future''. Yes, indeed, Dick, and let us just be clear about what

some of these freedoms would be.

There would be the freedom to divorce, there would be the freedom to

terminate pregnancies on the same basis as in the rest of these islands,

there would be a clear division between the role of the church, any

church, and state. There would be freedom to call the Pope, and Paisley,

silly old fools if that is someone's honest opinion. Because anything

less will not be accepted by citizens of Ulster and I do not just mean

the Protestants.

Dick Spring's final point will stick in some craws but not mine. The

men of violence, and the women, let's not forget their role, will not be

allowed to come to the conference table unless they would stop the

killing.

The British Government, of course, says the same but insists the

killing must stop first. These positions are not irreconcilable. There

are also enormous advantages to be gained by the first side to announce

a ceasefire, as Adams knows.

And maybe that is what we will have

to accept, a temporary cessation while talks take place. For what is

the greater evil, talking to terrorists, some people's freedom fighters,

or burying more innocents?

I have family in Ulster and friends in the Republic. There is an

overwhelming desire for an end to the butchery which transcends borders

and religious differences.

This morning, in parts of the United Kingdom and in Ireland, people

are living in fear for their lives. We are supposed to be sophisticated,

civilised nations; this is not Yugoslavia, it is not Somalia; this is

happening before our very eyes and on our television screens, every

night.

I always had the feeling that, despite the UK-Irish Agreement, Mrs

Thatcher was not much taken by Ulster politics. She was resolute in the

face of terror, -- she was almost blown to bits herself after all -- but

she never thought it was a problem that could be solved by one of her

cherished maxims.

John Major's more patient style may bring more progress. He also has,

in Mr Reynolds, a much more straightforward character with whom to deal

than Mr Charles Haughey. And Mr Spring still has his eye on the ball.