Record of Meeting between Alec Reid and John McConnell on 8 February 1991 | Quill

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These documents were scanned, collated and catalogued by Ruth Murray, Annabel Harris, Isha Pareek, Eleanor Williams, Antoine Yenk, Harriet Carter, Oliver Nicholls, Kieran Wetherwick, and Cerys Griffiths.

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    JMcC/4/2

FROM: J McCONNELL

AS CENT SEC

DATE: 8 FEBRUARY 1991

Cc Mr McNeill - [Copy 3 of 4]

Mr Petch - [Copy 4 of 4]

PS/PUS (B & L) - [Copies 1 & 2 of 4]

MEETING WITH FATHER REID – 8 2 91

Surprisingly Father Reid did in fact want to talk about a proposed MBW project however he then made the following points in relation to his contacts with Gerry Adams.
He said at the outset that he meets Gerry Adams regularly both on a social basis and on matters of mutual concern such as prisoners etc. I explained to him, as I have told him often in the past, that I am no longer doing the PAB job but he assured me he was merely talking to me as a friend and that he in no way expected me to be doing other than simply having a chat with him. On that basis we spoke for about 40 minutes on very many different topics but the points of interest which arose are as follows:

i. Gerry Adams went out of his way to make three or four references in his speech to the recent Ard Fheis which were aimed at drawing attenion to the flexibility within the Republican movement. Phrases such as “give and take”, “political risks” and “we will be positive” were quoted by Father Reid in this context;

ii. on the political risk point Father Reid said that the Republican movement and Adams are not in the business of using intermediaries for any substantive issues and generally required some indication that a risk was being taken by the other party. He quoted as an example when feuding is going on within the movement some sign of good faith which carried some risk for the party concerned is always sought before proceeding;

iii. according to Father Reid, who assured me that he personally holds John Hume in high esteem, said that the rank and file of the movement regard Mr Hume as an out and out traitor and that Mr Adams believes John Hume’s assessment of the Republican philosophy does not square with the Republican assessment of the Republican philosophy – I did not pursue an explanation as I did not want to prolong the conversation.

I am absolutely convinced that Father Reid was merely chatting things over with me and that he is not acting as an intermediary or conduit and I am satisfied he is aware of my own position. I expect he will be in contact with me again but it will be about the MBW scheme that he has an interest in – I have spoken to Mr McNeill and he has explained the sensitivities to me and I do not intend to enter where angels fear to tread.

[Signed: JEMcC]

J E McCONNELL

CENTRAL SECRETARIAT

1991-02-08

This document provides an account of a meeting between John McConnell and Father Alec Reid on 8 February 1991. Although the meeting was originally organised to discuss the proposed 'Making Belfast Work' project, McConnell and Reid ended up talking about Reid's conversations with Gerry Adams. Topics of discussion included Adams' references to flexibility within PIRA, mutual political risk and John Hume's assessment of Republican philosophy. Some text from the document is highlighted.

CJ 4/9297 1991

downing street declaration inclusion/exclusion of parties

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i24577

CJ 4/9297

64 101 - 1991

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Unless otherwise specified, this material falls under Crown Copyright and contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

The National Archives of the UK (TNA), digitzed by the Quill Project at https://quillproject.net/resource_collections/351/.

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