- 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 13114: 1992-10-23 17:05:00
Conclusions of bilaterals with the DUP, Irish Officials, and the SDLP.
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Conclusions of the Bilateral DUP 23 October 1992 1705
Conclusions of the Bilateral DUP 23 October 1992 1705
Following a meeting with Sir Ninian Stephen, Mr Robinson was of the opinion that the the Irish would be willing to propose the amendment of Articles 2 and 3 but they were not willing to say so in terms.
Sir Ninian also indicated that the main Irish concern was to secure executive authority for new north/south institutions, which was unacceptable to the DUP. Furthermore, the indication that heads of department would be excluded if they supported terrorism or were opposed to the working of the new arrangements was a problem. This suggested to the DUP that there would be at most 3 or 4 Unionists in a "council of Ireland" of 12 members; this wasn't remotely sellable to the Unionist community. The DUP's willingness for the talks process to continue was therefore in no sense an acceptance of the particular ideas which seemed to be emerging.
The DUP were now in dialogue with the UUP to try to clarify the position of Sir Ninian. The Secretary of State encouraged them to pursue that. HMG expressed that the account which the DUP had received did not accord with their own understanding of the position; Sir Ninian would be contacted to clarify this.
Mr Robinson confirmed that the DUP had no objection of principle to north/south bodies being established by the two legislatures provided power resided with the latter; where there was benefit to be gained though co-operation the DUP had no rooted objection.
On Strand III issues - provided that there was an overall British/Irish umbrella the DUP were willing to see different sorts of business handled in different compartments. The important point with the DUP was that the over-arching tripartite body was seen to be the successor to the IGC.
The Secretary of State concluded that it was important to get the DUP fully back into the talks, if this was possible.
Decisions yet to be taken
- Conclusions of the Bilateral DUP 23 October 1992 1705 (introduced on 1992-10-23 17:05:00 - CREATE_FROM - e841903) [This document]
Document Timeline
- Conclusions of the Bilateral DUP 23 October 1992 1705 (introduced on 1992-10-23 17:05:00 - CREATE_FROM - e841903) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]