Why are we obsessed with importing national and international mediators and envoys to sort out our problems?

George Mitchell may have got the parties over the line in 1998, yet within a matter of months the cracks were beginning to show.

He was followed by Richard Haass and Mitchell Reiss, who were tasked during the early ersatz post-conflict years to assist with paramilitary decommissioning. Yet we still have active republican and loyalist paramilitary groups.

Gary Hart (a former presidential candidate) and Mick Mulvaney (a former White House chief of staff for Donald Trump) came and went.

Tom Collins: The Drumcree disgrace just confirms that Northern Ireland is unfit for purpose

Brian Feeney: The problem at Drumcree is the Orange Order, and has been for 200 years

Jonathan Powell (a key player for Tony Blair) was roped in to underpin the setting up of the Loyalist Communities Council – which still hasn’t delivered on its founding commitments.

So what’s the point of dragging in someone to sort out Drumcree?

The answer – and yes, there is one – is actually pretty simple.

It has nothing to do with finding a permanent solution to a particular problem; rather, it’s about finding what is best described as a stalemate compromise which will enable the process to get over the latest crisis.

But as will all compromises........

© The Irish News