One likely alternative to roundtable talks are "proximity" talks, in which unionist parties which cannot stomach sitting in the same room with Sinn Fein meet separately and communicate with the British government.Sinn Fein has already dismissed this option.
The inquiry was set up after demands from Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland's first minister, that a judicial review should investigate why up to 200 wanted IRA fugitives had received "letters of assurance" from the Blair government, which unionist parties, Alliance, the nationalist SDLP and the Irish government claim they knew nothing about.
Which unionist marches are the most contentious?
And yet these same parties name a kids' playground after an IRA man, which unionists feel is deeply offensive," he said.
So, our vision of this new Ireland must be a shared Ireland, an integrated Ireland, an Ireland in which unionists have equal ownership.
Mitchell, who was appointed chairman of the all-party talks in June 1996 after 14 hours of negotiations in which unionists attempted to block his nomination, said he won round the hardliners by deploying his skills as a federal judge.
At the time, Cruise O'Brien's central (some would say paranoiac) preoccupation was that the Provos - an organisation he regards as fascist, seeking power in the way the Nazis did - were on a forced march to a united Ireland in which unionists would have no place.Two significant developments would signal this, he forecast.
This came with complex rules to ensure that Northern Ireland's Protestant majority (which is "unionist", wanting the province to stay British) did not exclude from power the Catholic minority (which is "nationalist", seeking a united Ireland).
Yet this has not prevented the slogan playing a huge part in the late separatist surge.This is the lunatic atmosphere into which the unionist leaders, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, launched their humiliating and belated mission to save Britain this week.
The PSNI has done for policing what the devolved Belfast administration, which combines unionist and republican ministers in coalition, has done for politics.In this section A very big headache A simpler dotage No going back Not moving on up Red-faced all over Careful now The One Nation radical ReprintsUnfortunately, that success has created a new vulnerability.
Ms Villiers said she recognised agreement on the legacy of the past would be difficult or "impossible" before Judge Hallett reports on the On The Runs issue, but hoped there was "room for manoeuvre" in which the unionist parties could still engage in conversations about a way forward.
