- Event type: CREATE_FROM
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.
Office of the Strand 1 Chairman (British Government Delegation)
In order to adequately reflect the role of the Chairman and his staff in re-drafting documents and controlling the flow of information during bilateral negotiations, we are representing them as a separate committee. In contrast to other Quill negotiations, in these Talks much of the actual work of negotiation and making proposals took place in bilateral meetings between the Chairman and the party delegations. The minutes of these sessions have been preserved in the same format as the minutes of the plenary sessions, and the sessions are modelled from the minutes as separate Committees (British Government/Alliance Bilaterals, etc.). The Chairman would move between these meetings, reporting on the positions of the other delegations and trying to reach accommodation. It is beyond the scope of the current project to model all the internal government meetings which took place during the Talks (although documentation for at least some of them exists in the National Archives), but we can draw on evidence within the sources we are using to show that proposals and agendas for the bilaterals were agreed within the Government team. For example, in a particular round of meetings, the Chairman will open the meeting with a near-identical agenda and summary of the current position of the other parties. To adequately model the fact that the flow of ideas between the delegations was filtered by the Chairman in this way, we have set up a committee called the 'Office of the Chairman' to show the conclusions of each bilateral discussion passing through the Chairman's Office and being redrafted before being passed on to the next delegation.
To see the full record of a committee, click on the corresponding committee on the map below.
Session 12571: 1991-05-28 07:00:00
Creation of the draft Workplan ahead of the sub-plenary meeting
Document View:
Draft Workplan As Amended by Sub-Plenary Meeting on 28 May
Draft Workplan [Working Version of 28 May Sub-Plenary Committee]
Workplan for Strand 1
1. It is envisaged that the underlying issues will be comprehensively aired during the initial plenary session(s) of strand one. This should be by written statements to which parties can speak and on which they can be questioned.
2. It is expected that common themes will emerge which will form the basis for further discussions. At the forefront among these are likely to be Northern Ireland's constitutional status and relationships within the Northern Ireland community.
3. Following [the outcome of the initial discussions], there is general agreement that the workplan for the remaining elements of the workplan will need to cover [sic] the following [sic] areas and in the order suggested:
(i) range of responsibilities;
(ii) extent of powers to be transferred;
(iii) means of exercising these responsibilities;
(iv) nature and extent of the roles of representatives of the two parts of the community, and possible safeguards for any or all sides of the community;
(v) type of institution (including if appropriate method of election);
(vi) legislative arrangements for transferred and non-transferred matters (procedures in Northern Ireland, procedures at Westminster?);
(vii) arrangements for the protection of individual and community rights;
(viii) security matters (extent of local political influence over law and order matters);
(ix) financial arrangements and resources;
(x) relationship with other bodies (District Councils, Boards, etc);
(xi) EC matters;
(xii) relationship with the Secretary of State and UK Government system;
(xiii) role of UK Government and Parliament in respect of matters which are not transferred;
(xiv) arrangements for validating the outcome of the talks process as a whole insofar as the issues for discussion in strand one are concerned.
[Editor's Note: Some conflation of the points in paragraph 3 is agreed, but the exact form is not specified in the minutes and is perhaps left to officials preparing the next draft.]
Decisions yet to be taken
- Draft Workplan As Amended by Sub-Plenary Meeting on 28 May (introduced on 1991-05-28 07:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e827279) [This document]
Document Timeline
- Draft Workplan As Amended by Sub-Plenary Meeting on 28 May (introduced on 1991-05-28 07:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e827279) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]