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  1. Overview: Northern Ireland Brooke/Mayhew Talks 1991-1992
  2. Full Record: Northern Ireland Brooke/Mayhew Talks 1991-1992
  3. Committee:British-Unionist Talks
  4. Session: 1992-11-05 14:45:00
  5. 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.

British-Unionist Talks

Meetings between the British Government, the UUP and the DUP. Dates of meetings created from source material, but records of discussions not currently available to us.

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Document introduced in:

Session 13144: 1992-11-05 14:45:00

Meeting between Secretary of State, Mr Molyneaux, and Dr Paisley.

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Conclusions of the Bilateral Unionist 5 November 1992 1445

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Conclusions of the Bilateral Unionist 5 November 1992 1445

The Secretary of State established that, due to the prospect of an Irish election, he doubted it would be possible for heads of agreement to be achieved. The question now, therefore, was how best to build on the progress that had been made.

Different options were explored:

- The Secretary of State asked whether the Unionists would be willing to contemplate talks getting under way again after a new gap had been declared following a post election IGC. Both Mr Molyneaux and Dr Paisley endorsed the opinion that once the talks ended next week they could not be resumed.

- In discussion the Secretary of State and Mr Chilcot sought to clarify whether Dr Paisley and Mr Molyneaux were seeking an unconditional commitment by the Irish Government or simply a commitment that they would seek the amendment of the Articles upon the successful completion of the talks. They replied in slightly different ways and suggested they would be prepared to draft a statement of their position on the point.

- The possibility of continuing the Talks through consultations was raised by the Secretary of State and Mr Chilcot; Dr Paisley and Mr Molyneaux did not agree with this idea, emphasising that they would have to be closed discussions, preferably at Westminster, away from the eyes of the press.

The Secretary of State later brought up the possibility of the participants agreeing a statement drawing attention to the progress which had been made in recent months. The Unionist leaders said that they were not against this in principle though they thought it would be difficult to agree a common text.

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