- 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 12589: 1991-05-20 07:00:00
Resumption of formal bilaterals with the three delegations after the delay in the Unionist delegation accepting the government proposal of 14 May and the fall-out from their meeting with the Prime Minister on 15 May.
Document View (with components):
Meeting the Following Day to Approve Minutes
Conclusions of the Bilateral Meeting with the Unionist Delegations on 20 May 1991 at 1527
The Unionist delegations still stood by their paper of 13 June.
The opening Strand Two session in London might last for two or three days rather than one, if, as was envisaged in Strand One, each delegation was given the opportunity to present its position first and for other delegations to cross-examine them thereafter.
The Unionists would be looking for the Irish Government to say they would be prepared to consider an alternative to or replacement of Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution. If they were to do so then the Unionists would remove their vehement opposition to talking in Northern Ireland. Bilateral meetings could be useful after the first plenary.
The Unionists requested access to the British Government during Strand 3, noting that the SDLP would be able to talk to the Irish Government whenever they liked.
The Secretary of State explained that the Unionist delegation would be free to meet either Government if they requested it and would not need to meet both together. The Minister of State commented that in the same way that the first meeting in London may last two to three days, so the last meeting in strand two which may be in Dublin might also need to go beyond one day to allow time for the Unionists to put their views to the two Governments in addition to the summing up of strand two issues.
Appointment of Independent Chairman - The Secretary of State said that it had been agreed with the Prime Minister that the independent chairman would receive his appointment from the two Governments after consultation with the parties. He welcomed nominations for the role of independent chairman from any quarter. The Government had a responsibility to consult the parties and the Secretary of State recalled that at the meeting with the Prime Minister he had said it would be madness for the two Governments to appoint someone who was patently unacceptable to one or more of the parties.
[The Unionist] understanding of the meeting with the Prime Minister was that there had been a move from consultation towards joint decision [...] that the two Governments would appoint the independent chairman but that the consent of all was required. Mr Molyneaux confirmed that the Unionists would not hold out against other nominees in favour of their own. He recognised that everyone needed to consent to the appointment.
Independent Chairman's terms of reference - the three particular issues of concern to the Unionists were the powers to convene meetings, to set an agenda and to determine the location of meetings.
Agenda for Strand 2 - It was essential to the Unionists that Articles 2 and 3 should form part of the agenda for Strand 2 of the Talks.
Decisions yet to be taken
- Meeting the Following Day to Approve Minutes (introduced on 1991-05-20 07:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e828330) [This document]
Document Timeline
- Meeting the Following Day to Approve Minutes (introduced on 1991-05-20 07:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e828330) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]