- 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.
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 12584: 1991-05-10 07:00:00
This is session is created to take receipt of the Joint Unionist Press Statement on Friday 10 May.
Document View:
Statement from the Joint Unionist Leaders
STATEMENT FROM THE JOINT UNIONIST LEADERS
The present talks process did not come about by good fortune, but rather along a route started by us over three years ago with the then Secretary of State, Tom King. We make the point, only to establish that we wish the talks to succeed. Moreover, it is clearly the desire of the community that success should greet our efforts. We have been concerned that, thus far, Mr Brooke has been unable to obtain agreement among the parties as to a venue for Strand 2 of the negotiations (dealing with the relationship between any new Northern Ireland administration and the Republic of Ireland).
Our minds have been exercised by the dilemma and while we believe that the overwhelming burden of historical precedence and logistical suitability weighs in favour of meeting in London for Strand 2, we have been willing to consider, and have talked with Mr Brooke about, other options.
With parties maintaining confidentiality there has been limited information available to the public so we feel it is useful to review the situation. The position of the parties on the location when the talks would enter the second strand was well known. The SDLP wanted the talks in the island of Ireland, at Dublin or Armagh, while Unionists believed that they should be held in London.
As testimony of our reasonable approach we placed before the Secretary of State a sequence of alternatives:-
1. London.
2. Elsewhere in Great Britain.
3. London for Strand 2, with all but the final stages of Strand 3 (which deals with the relationship between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) in Dublin.
4. A neutral venue outside the two islands.
5. The opening meeting of Strand 2 in London; moving to a neutral location for the substantive negotiations; concluding in Dublin with a transitional meeting from Strand 2 to Strand 3 and thereafter alternating between London and Dublin.
This latest proposal, we felt, went even further than the suggestion by Archbishop Cathal Daly and reflected our preparedness to go the extra mile.
We cannot continue upon an imbalanced and continuous process of compromise - to do so would be to capitulate and that we will not do.
While we will continue to seek a reasonable accommodation, the community will understand that we cannot indefinitely be expected to alter our position in the absence of a reciprocal measure of flexibility by others.
Released Friday 10 May 1991
Decisions yet to be taken
Document Timeline
- Statement from the Joint Unionist Leaders (introduced on 1991-05-10 07:00:00 - CREATE - e828106) [This document]
[view current proposal at this moment]
- None (introduced on 1991-05-10 07:00:00 - REPORT_PROPOSAL - e828107) [view current proposal at this moment]