- Event type: CREATE
Northern Ireland Brooke/Mayhew Talks 1991-1992
WORK IN PROGRESS - IN THE FINAL STAGES OF EDITING A series of talks launched by Peter Brooke, Secretary of State for Northern in Ireland, which began in April 1991, and were carried on intermittently by Brooke and his successor, Patrick Mayhew, until November 1992.
All-Party Negotiations
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Session 11448: 1992-04-29 11:35:00
First plenary meeting under the Chairmanship of Patrick Mayhew following the General Election.
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SDLP Presentation to Plenary Session 29.4.92
SDLP Presentation to Plenary Session 29.4.92
The SDLP delegation also welcomed the new members of the Government Team, and agreed with the comments made by the Government Team that an opportunity lay ahead to ensure the democratic process triumphed. The SDLP analysis of the problem began from the fact that problems had existed in Ireland prior to partition, and that the problems were therefore more fundamental than the mere existence of Northern Ireland or the form its institutions took. Two different, but equally legitimate, traditions existed. There should be an acceptance that the rights of Nationalists and Unionists to effective political, symbolic and administrative expression of their identity, their ethos and their way of life had to be addressed in the Talks process. The SDLP delegation said they were willing to provide a paper for discussion on the Unionist identity to that end, but recognised that the Unionist Parties would be the best arbiters of what that tradition was. The SDLP could also produce a paper on the Nationalist identity. The nature of the problem had changed as the old notion of the "nation-state" had changed in recent years. The crux of the matter was not what was on the table but what was agreed. Nothing could be agreed until everything had been agreed. The Talks should quickly define the problem, make that analysis public and then move on to address institutional matters.
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- SDLP Presentation to Plenary Session 29.4.92 (introduced on 1992-04-29 11:35:00 - CREATE - e798902) [This document]
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- SDLP Presentation to Plenary Session 29.4.92 (introduced on 1992-04-29 11:35:00 - CREATE - e798902) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]