Marching season in Northern Ireland once again has fanned the flames of sectarian violence. The police are currently investigating a firebomb attack that killed three young boys over the weekend. Following a background report, the Irish and British ambassadors to the United States discuss the recent violence.

MARGARET WARNER: This is the first significant spate of violence since the Northern Ireland peace accords were signed three months ago. After that, voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to the South approved the peace pact, and Northern Ireland's voters also elected members of a new local assembly. For an update on where things stand now we turn to the ambassadors to the United States from Great Britain, Sir Christopher Meyer, and for the Republic of Ireland, Sean O'Huiginn.

Welcome, gentlemen. Mr. Ambassador, first of all, what can you tell us about what British authorities know about who committed this firebombing?

CHRISTOPHER MEYER, Ambassador, Great Britain: Well, I can't tell you much more than what you've already seen on your news reports, and that is that the Royal Ulster Constabulary has detained two men, taken them in for questioning in connection with this abominable crime, and we don't yet know what the outcome of their investigations are. And they'll make a statement when they're ready to do so.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. But can you confirm that at least the two men they've arrested, that it was sectarian violence?

CHRISTOPHER MEYER: The police have made a statement saying that that is what they suspect, but they have to wait for the outcome of their inquiries. And I really can't second guess what the police authorities are going to say.

MARGARET WARNER: How do you assess the situation on the ground now? How tense is it? How dangerous?

SEAN O'HUIGINN, Ambassador, Ireland: Well, it's very tense, but to some extent that had been anticipated. I think what you're seeing is effectively the last throe of the old Unionist politics based on ideas of supremacy and lack of dialogue. Their attempt to thwart the new agreement, which, as you say it, has been brought into place and ordered it into place by the people in Northern Ireland, in the South, and by the island collectively. And although I think it was a very dangerous challenge for the agreement, I think, nevertheless, it's a challenge that has been weathered and although there will be difficulties still to come, I believe that the decision-the new politics of Northern Ireland, if you like, will, in fact, prevail, an I think that's becoming more and more clear now.

MARGARET WARNER: But is it a political problem, or is it also a law enforcement problem, and where does the law enforcement or security side stand?

SEAN O'HUIGINN: Well, it's both effectively. I think the British government is greatly to be commended by the decision it took to uphold the decision of the parades commission. That may seem very obvious because, after all, this was a commission they had themselves set up, which are the force of law. But I think the task was made more difficult by decisions in previous years, when the Orange Order by-intimidating numbers were able to effectively pressurize the security forces into forcing marches down Garvaghy Road. That meant that the Orangemen, I think, had begun to hope and the residents to fear that this would happen again this year. The fact that it did not was I think a very important factor, a new factor in the situation, and an entirely helpful one.

MARGARET WARNER: How do you assess the security situation on the ground now?

CHRISTOPHER MEYER: Well, I think Sean O'Huiginin is absolutely right. We are in a new situation. And the new situation has been defined by the Good Friday settlement. The referendum that overwhelmingly approved the Good Friday settlement in both the Republic of Ireland and the North and of course we've had successful elections in the North for the new Northern Ireland assembly. That has created a totally different context for this long running dispute. Now what we are seeing, I hope, is that the center, the democratic center, which has overwhelmingly supported the new peace settlement, will continue to hold, as it has held over the challenge over the last three or four days, and that this will continue to develop as the weeks and months go ahead. In the meantime we're going to face challenges. We faced the stiffest challenge so far for the peace settlement. I think Sean is right and that we have weathered it. Things are much calmer now than they were over the last two or three days. And if there's anything to come out of this hideous crime that took place on Sunday. It is that it is has brought, I hope, most people to their senses about what is at stake, but I'm afraid we will probably have more challenges of one kind or another over the next few weeks and months, and we will need security to be ready to meet those challenges if and when they come.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you agree that the reaction to these deaths has been different than say reaction to thousands of deaths in years past, that it has had a different impact? How would you assess the impact?

SEAN O'HUIGINN: Well, I think it was very difficult to see the footage of that funeral without being profoundly moved, and I think what happened was that these atrocious deaths held up a very shocking mirror to the whole society in Northern Ireland and began to, I think, put in a timely sense of perspective on the relative importance of three children burned alive, marching down the small stretch of road. So I think it was-out of evil may have come the good. The people have realized just how it-the cost of sectarian politics and sectarian violence and I think undoubtedly it has changed the climate for the better. It has meant that a number of people, including in the Orange Order, have called very courageously for this protest to be called off, and I think there is a marked impact in terms of numbers of the pressure and vehemence in the protest since the killings.

MARGARET WARNER: Orangemen say, as you know, that they're not committing the violence. They're peacefully demonstrating for their right to march, as they should be entitled to they say in a democratic society, and that other elements are doing the violence. Are they right?

SEAN O'HUIGINN: Well, I think the good intentions get totally drowned out by the obvious effect on the ground. I mean, there is a cause and effect, and these ostensibly peaceful protests are leading consistently time and time again to outbursts of violence, so you cannot really disassociate the marchers themselves from the violence, which may be technically separate, what is, in fact, the inevitable compliment.

CHRISTOPHER MEYER: I don't disagree with Sean. I think the situation we have is one in which men of violence hide behind people who set out with a peaceful intention, and this is a key to the problem. This is what we have seen over the last few days, the last three or four days. And what we have now is that as David Trimble said and said very courageously sitting side by side with Seamus Mallon at that press conference, Seamus Mallon, at the people who are still left at Drumcree, the Orangemen are sitting in the fields, should go home.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. So how are you going to-I mean, they are saying they're not going to go home. How are you going to neutralize and finally resolve the situation?

CHRISTOPHER MEYER: Well, there's a limit to what outsiders can do, what the British government can do. At the end of the day this is only going to be solved by reconciliation between the two communities and between the two traditions. And what we have seen over the last few weeks and months is that more and more people in both traditions want to pursue reconciliation. There are irreconcilables at both ends of the spectrum. And one has to hope that bit by bit they will be isolated and drawn into the mainstream who want a reconciliation.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you agree that there is a limit? I mean, it may seem obvious that there really is a limit even with this Drumcree situation to what outside governments-two governments sitting here-represented here can do.

SEAN O'HUIGINN: Well, I think it does ultimately require cooperation on the ground, but I think there's an awful lot that the governments can do when they're in very close cooperation on that. The so-called proximity talks are due to resume again tomorrow.

MARGARET WARNER: And just explain, these are, what, the residents of the Garvaghy Road neighborhood and the Orangemen don't want to talk to each other, but they're going to talk-

CHRISTOPHER MEYER: Let me explain because this is something that we-when I say we-that Tony Blair decided was absolutely necessary at the end of last week, precisely because the two communities, the Garvaghy Road and the Orangemen, wouldn't speak to each other directly. Something had to be done to try to bring them together, so we devised this notion of proximity talks and Tony Blair sent one of his chief of staff over to Drumcree to try and move forward talks between the two communities. Now the reports I have seen is that they made some progress. They didn't make-reach a complete agreement. We hope those talks will resume this week and that it will produce a settlement between the Orangemen and the residents of Garvaghy Road.

SEAN O'HUIGINN: I think it's very important to stress that the residents want dialogue. They have consistently been in favor of dialogue. It is the Orange Order that refuses dialogue because they believe that that might in some way compromise their principles or mean that they were marching with the consent of the residents which they say is against their principles. So the residents do want dialogue and they're available for dialogue at all times. The difficulty has been the other side, and the proximity talks, as Christopher said, are-is a way around that problem for the Orange Order to speak to the residents, and we hope--it's too early yet to predict the outcome-but we hope that a solution can be found. I think the residents essentially-the agenda for them is not so much about marches, it's about respect for their tradition, for their streets, if you like, and I think the dialogue-a situation could open up where the marching issue could be resolved without any problem.

There are 3,000 marches, loyalist marches, in Northern Ireland every summer. All but a handful are non-controversial. The ones that are controversial are for the most part where some particular atrocity has taken place against the Catholic community, or where the composition of the street has changed. The Orange Order view is that it shouldn't affect the question of a march there. The residents and nobody indeed opposes Orange marches in principle. The second largest march in the world happens in the South-and is policed by five or six policemen, because it's a celebration of Protestant heritage. What happens in the other marches is they're much more a celebration of Catholic defeat, and that's where the emotion comes in.

MARGARET WARNER: So this marching season continues throughout the rest of the summer. How do you assess the risk, the threat of further violence?

CHRISTOPHER MEYER: I hope that we have passed the high point of that danger. I hope that's gone now, and I hope that what we will now see is an unwinding of the situation, with people focusing not so much on the marching season but about what now has to be done to put a new settlement into effect. We've had the elections. After the summer holidays there should be a lot of intensive work going ahead to get this up and running, and we hope to see the new Northern Ireland structures in place early in 1999. That's where people should be focusing, and I hope that as far as the marches are concerned, we will not see the kind of violence which is destructive to the majority of people of what now needs to be done.

MARGARET WARNER: What is the role of the new Northern Ireland assembly right now in managing this situation?

CHRISTOPHER MEYER: Well, the new Northern Ireland assembly is hardly in being. It's I think had one formal meeting so far in which it's taken a few preliminary decisions, and we in the United Kingdom have to pass what is known as a settlement bill, which as long as the UK is concerned, provides for all the enabling legislation that sets up the bodies that come under the peace settlement. So between now and the end of the year or early '99, informally, if you like, the Northern Ireland assembly and the executive bodies will be organizing themselves and getting ready for the moment early in '99, when truly they will be launched and so it should be a busy period, we hope, of cooperation between the parties, who are represented in the new assembly.

MARGARET WARNER: But for the time being the British government is still really fully in control.

CHRISTOPHER MEYER: For the time being the same constitutional arrangement applies, and at some stage next year, the secretary of state from Northern Ireland-Mo Molum-very well known on this side of the Atlantic-will effectively hand over her powers to the new assembly.

MARGARET WARNER: And last Friday it was reported that British and Irish officials in Britain and Ireland had a sweep in which they arrested 10 what they identified as sort of IRA sympathizers, radical Irish Republican Army sympathizers. What can you tell us about that sweep? What can you tell us about the sort of strength of rejectionist Catholic elements that are still active?

SEAN O'HUIGINN: Well, I think the central fact in Northern Ireland is that the main parliamentary group, the provisional IRA, the main Republican Party, Sinn Fein, on all evidence are working the agreement in good faith. The Ormeau road march was as controversial as Drumcree. It was where the parades commission decided to push the march through against Nationalist wishes. Nevertheless, there was a dignified lawful protest, so I think that shows that there is a willingness on the part of these groups to work the peace agreement. There are, of course, an unrepresentative margin, a very small one, they can do some damage. It's too much to hope that all violence is finished, but they are in American terms very insignificant. And happily, the police forces in both countries seem to have been able to interdict most of their attempts at violence so far, so I wouldn't exaggerate that threat.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Gentlemen, I'm sorry, we have to leave it there. But thank you both very much. We'll have you back.

CHRISTOPHER MEYER: Thank you very much, Margaret.

SEAN O'HUIGINN: Thank you.