- 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 14284: 1992-06-11 13:40:00
Meeting of the Secretary of State and officials to try to secure transition to Strand II.
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Briefing from the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister for His Meeting with the Taoiseach
[Editor's Note: We do not have the official text of this document, but we have included the summary of the conversation given in the minute below. It was a message to be relayed to the Prime Minister prior to his meeting with the Taoiseach at the Rio Earth Summit.]
It would be helpful if the Prime Minister could underline to the Taoiseach that the situation was very serious. Efforts to get into Strand II were continuing but we were very 'near midnight'. The Secretary of State was satisfied that the Unionists would not agree to go to Strand II unless Mr Hume was able to reduce the reservations which he had entered and shown an increased level of commitment to the model which had been worked up in sub-committee. Very little was being asked of Mr Hume. It was essential that the Taoiseach understood that the Unionists would not go forward unless Mr Hume showed more flexibility. If the talks collapsed it was unlikely that they would resume for years.
Decisions yet to be taken
- Briefing from the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister for His Meeting with the Taoiseach (introduced on 1992-06-11 13:40:00 - CREATE - e899848) [This document]
Document Timeline
- Briefing from the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister for His Meeting with the Taoiseach (introduced on 1992-06-11 13:40:00 - CREATE - e899848) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]