- 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.
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Session 13983: 1992-06-01 12:30:00
Wash up meeting between various officials and the Secretary of State to discuss if and when the Prime Minister should be involved in the Talks.
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Message from the Private Secretary of the Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA
From the Private Secretary
1 June 1992
Dear William, [Editor's note: Handwritten]
NORTHERN IRELAND POLITICAL TALKS
The Prime Minister was grateful to Sir Patrick Mayhew for his minute of 29 May. The Prime Minister has commented that he has no intention of letting John Hume stop progress. He is content to proceed as the Northern Ireland Secretary proposes including a meeting with the Northern Ireland leaders, if necessary (possibly preceded by a private meeting with Mr. Hume alone). If the talks break down, the Prime Minister's instinct is to try to go ahead without the agreement of the parties.
As we discussed, the Prime Minister is away on Friday and all of the following week. We could arrange a meeting this week if necessary but it would involve disruption of a very crowded diary.
I am copying this letter to the Private Secretaries to members of NI Committee and to Sir Robin Butler.
Yours,
Stephen [Editor's Note: Signed by hand]
(J. S. WALL)
William Fittall, Esq.,
Northern Ireland Office.
Decisions yet to be taken
- Message from the Private Secretary of the Prime Minister (introduced on 1992-06-01 12:30:00 - CREATE - e865936) [This document]
Document Timeline
- Message from the Private Secretary of the Prime Minister (introduced on 1992-06-01 12:30:00 - CREATE - e865936) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]