Northern Ireland Mini-Models

This negotiation contains a selection of mini-models designed to provide an insight into the ongoing work of 'Writing Peace' and to demonstrate Quill's approach to visualising the archive material and tracking the process of negotiation. It differs from our usual approach in that we will be presenting only certain documents and moments in isolation, rather than including everything tabled during the course of a negotiation. This collection is still under construction, and we will be regularly adding small amounts of new material.

Prisoners Section of the Mitchell Draft

This mini-model has been created to represent a section of the Monica McWilliams collection relating to amendments to the 'Prisoners' section of the 6th/7th April Mitchell Draft. Although, unlike the NIWC text on victims being worked up in parallel, these particular amendments did not make it into the Good Friday Agreement, they do provide one small snapshot of the frenetic markup and re-drafting process that took place within the party offices after the late (and late night) appearance of the draft agreement. The NIWC's commitment to broadening participation in democracy was at the heart of their version of this process, and this model demonstrates how amendments emerged in dialogue with experts from NIACRO, a voluntary organization working to reduce crime and re-offending. It is also interesting to note that the two-year timeline set for prisoner release in the final draft of the agreement accords with the recommendation made by NIACRO and the amendment proposed by the NIWC.

Evolution of the Human Rights Language in the Good Friday Agreement

This mini-model was created to accompany Professor Christopher McCrudden's presentation to the Agreement 25 Conference at Queen's University, Belfast. It traces the history and evolution of the language that eventually became the Human Rights section of the Good Friday Agreement. We hope that visualizing the development of that language will help us understand its context and significance. A wide range of documents are included, beginning with early drafts of the Joint Declaration and culminating in the final Agreement, and a wide range of actors are identified as part of the process of producing them. The mini-model is still incomplete at the moment, and we aim to expand it as we source more drafts of the various documents involved and the papers that put them in context.

Downing Street Declaration and Framework Documents

This mini-model is still under construction. The editors aim to assemble a comprehensive (but non-exhaustive) collection of drafts of the Downing Street Joint Declaration to track how the text developed over time. We are also working on a more comprehensive model that will include the meetings where the declaration was under consideration, track the process of amendment, and detail further annotations made to each draft. This detailed model is forthcoming in December 2023.