PEACE TALKS : Fear of Violence Grows as Talks Stall in Northern Ireland : British, Irish officials to meet next week in effort to renew negotiations.

As officials prepare to hold critical talks on Northern Ireland here next week, all sides agree that the peace process has stalled and is in danger of losing momentum amid the threat of renewed violence.

British officials are arranging a meeting between Britain’s Secretary for Northern Ireland, Patrick Mayhew, and his opposite number, Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring. But last week’s sharp clashes between Protestants and Catholics--with security forces somewhere in the middle--has participants deeply worried in Belfast, Dublin and London.

“The violence that accompanied the Protestant marches last week,” observed one official here, “shows what lies just below the surface in the sectarian communities in Northern Ireland. If we stand still, we endanger the cease-fire.”

The fractious demonstrations--in which about two dozen police and civilians were injured, though none seriously--began two weeks ago when the British freed an army soldier who had served four years in prison for killing a young Catholic joy-rider at a roadblock in Belfast.

Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, called for a similar release of IRA “political” prisoners, and for the transfer of some IRA prisoners from England to Northern Ireland. Dublin supported the proposal.

London maintained, however, that the republican prisoners--who want to end British rule in Northern Ireland--are “murderers” and “terrorists,” while the British soldier merely made a mistake in following military orders.

Sinn Fein has called for mass street protests against the deadlock in the talks, beginning Saturday.

The talks also are bogged down in accusations by each side that the other is not negotiating in good faith.

“The fact of the matter,” said one republican source here, “is that the British are dragging their heels on the peace talks because they are afraid of offending the Protestant unionists [who want to retain British rule].

“The unionists don’t really want any change and don’t want to go to any negotiating table with us. They are afraid the British are selling them out.”

Before last week’s violence, the British government had been trying to get Sinn Fein into talks with the Protestant and Catholic mainstream parties in Northern Ireland and in the Irish Republic. But Sinn Fein now demands to consult with Mayhew and refuses to talk with lower-level British officials.

Mayhew continues to insist that the IRA make some positive sign of laying down its arms--”decommissioning,” it is called--before Sinn Fein will be admitted to any all-party talks.

Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, argues that decommissioning is an artificial issue and talks should begin at once. Sinn Fein, he says, doesn’t control the IRA and there are no guarantees that pro-British paramilitaries would turn in their weapons.

Aides to British Prime Minister John Major observe that working toward peace in Northern Ireland has been a start-and-stop process.

“We’re currently in one of those periods when there appears to be no movement,” said an official at No. 10 Downing St. “But Sir Patrick [Mayhew] is a patient man, and we’re hoping to see some movement again.”

But the lack of talks with Sinn Fein and the unionists seems to have left a dangerous vacuum; arson attacks and “punishment” beatings by paramilitaries in Northern Ireland have been on the increase.

Britain’s Mayhew and Ireland’s Spring, joint chairmen of the Anglo-Irish intergovernmental Ulster Conference, will review the political and security situation when they meet next week.

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Groundwork for Peace

The goal: The British government is attempting to arrange a conference of all the political parties in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland to discuss the future of the troubled province, now ruled by Britain.

The method: The British and Irish governments have agreed on broadly worded ideas for improving cross-border ties between Northern Ireland and the republic. Any agreements require the consent of all parties.

The obstacles: The British say that Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, cannot join the all-party talks until it agrees that the IRA should lay down its weapons. Sinn Fein, which wants Northern Ireland to merge with the Irish Republic, maintains this demand is unreasonable and beyond its power.