- 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 12685: 1991-05-22 07:00:00
The Joint Unionist Position Paper of 21 May has been completed. The Secretary of State now seeks to resolve outstandig issues concerning the venue for Strand 2 and the terms of reference for the independent chairman. The identity of the chairman is considered to be a matter for the two governments.
Document View:
Conclusions of the Meeting with the Alliance Delegation on 22 May 1403
Conclusions of the Meeting with the Alliance Delegation on 22 May 1403
Venue for substantive meetings of Strand 2
Strand 2 should be held in Parliament Buildings.
Role of the Chairman
The Alliance Party said that they saw the role of the chairman to be that of a facilitator rather than that of an arbitrator or a decision-maker, though they recognised that there would be occasions when, having done his best to produce a meeting of minds, he would need to put forward his own proposals for the resolution of an issue based on his best assessment of the positions of the various participants. They recommended that whoever was chosen should be a native English speaker or at least fluent in English.
The machinery for dialogue between the chairman and the participants on the handling of business
The business decisions of the second strand might be handled by a business committee on which all the delegations would be represented; it might be helpful if the committee did not include the heads of the delegations.
The staff the Chairman might require
The Secretary of State should make what arrangements he considered necessary.
The Standing Orders/Rules of Procedure under which the chairman would operate
Standing orders should provide sufficient structure to ensure that the proceedings were orderly but leave as much room for flexibility as possible.
It was agreed:
- that the Chairman should have the power to convene, postpone and adjourn the meetings;
- that everyone should be appreciative of the time constraints under which they were working;
- that it should be possible to have bilaterals and sub-plenary working groups as well as full plenary meetings, and while these could take place anywhere, this should not lead to an unnecessary amount of time being wasted on travel;
- that a rule of confidentiality might not be feasible but that the Chairman should be advised to be extraordinarily careful in what he said;
- that Minutes should be kept.
Decisions yet to be taken
- Conclusions of the Meeting with the Alliance Delegation on 22 May 1403 (introduced on 1991-05-22 07:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e831506) [This document]
Document Timeline
- Conclusions of the Meeting with the Alliance Delegation on 22 May 1403 (introduced on 1991-05-22 07:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e831506) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]