So, at last, common sense – that commodity so rare in the current Parades Commission – has prevailed as the Secretary of State has banned the proposed Orange Order march on the Garvaghy Road.

This was and is the only sensible solution to the growing tension.

Residents will be relieved, as will the vast majority of the general public. The Parades Commission, through error and incompetence, opened Pandora’s Box and nearly tipped the north into chaos.

But let’s not fool ourselves: the Orange Order are the authors of this writ, and the Secretary of State had no other option. They will still try to burn their house down and ours with it.

Brian Feeney: Is Micheál Martin the worst taoiseach for the north since John Bruton?

Noel Doran: How the Orange Order turned Drumcree into a strategic catastrophe

The crash-and-burn tactics of the TUV were doomed from the outset. Now the target will be Stormont.

But the lack of support for the Orange Order amongst mainstream unionism is self-evident. The public have nothing but disdain for wreckers.

Predicting Michelle O’Neill’s (or whoever Sinn Féin anoints) ascension to First Minister again next year is not difficult. The DUP will likely be a distant runner-up.

However, if Chris Bryant demonstrates further courage and renames the Executive Office to include joint First Ministers, it could potentially dampen the tribal rush to the polls.

Since the St Andrews Agreement (not so much an agreement as a carve-up), the two main protagonists, the DUP and Sinn Féin, have been engaged in a competition to see who could metaphorically pee highest up the wall.

Without intervention on........

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