NI: New Labour, New Ireland
01 November 1997
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has put a May 1998 deadline on the talks over the future of Northern Ireland currently taking place in Castle Buildings, Stormont on the outskirts of Belfast. At that point, he proposes to hold a referendum within Northern Ireland on a package of proposals which he hopes will have been agreed at the talks. The Irish government is prepared to conduct a referendum at the same time in the Irish Republic. The two governments may decide to implement new structures in any event, whether or not supported by the parties and North/South referenda.
Not all parties are participating in the Stormont talks. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and lawyer Robert McCartney's United Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP) withdrew once it became clear that Sinn Fein were to be admitted to the talks before any decommissioning of IRA weaponry. It was insistence on prior decommissioning by the Major government which contributed to the breakdown of the first IRA ceasefire. Decommissioning is now being dealt with by the Decommissioning Commission, formally established on 24 September. This body has three members. It is chaired by the Canadian General John de Chastelain who was involved in the original Mitchell Commission, and the other members are the US diplomat Donald Johnson and Brigadier General Tauno Nieminen from Finland.
Under the Northern Ireland (Entry to Negotiations, etc) Act 1996, Sinn Fein were expressly forbidden to participate in the talks in the absence of the restoration of the IRA's ceasefire of August 1994, even though two of the party's talks team, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, were elected as MPs in the British general election in May. Another party member, Caoimhghn O Caolain was elected to the Dail in the Irish election in June and now participates in the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body, a 50-strong forum made up of 25 British and 25 Irish parliamentarians, which has met every six months since 1990. The IRA renewed the ceasefire in August and Sinn Fein were admitted to the talks in September. Also present at the talks are the Women's Coalition and a Labour grouping. Women's Coalition representatives are routinely verbally abused by unionists. The Labour grouping has a negligible profile.
In the absence of the DUP and UKUP, the unionist perspective is represented at the talks by the Ulster Unionist Party led by David Trimble and the two small loyalist parties, the Popular Unionist Party and the Ulster Democratic Party, aligned respectively to the armed groups of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association. Until recently, the loyalist armed groups, including the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), the Red Hand Commando and the Protestant Action Force, were part of a federal structure known as the Combined Loyalist Military Command; the CLMC regularly issued statements about the status of the loyalist ceasefire whenever this appeared to be contradicted by actions on the ground. By January 1997, the RUC were openly stating that all the loyalist groups had breached the ceasefire. This did not, however, result in the ejection of the PUP and the UDP from the talks, nor did it stop the British government from talking to the loyalist parties and inviting them to Downing Street. The CLMC broke up during the summer amidst increasing tensions between the UDA/UFF, UVF and the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force. The latter is strongest in the Portadown area, the base of Billy Wright ("King Rat"), widely regarded as the leader of the LVF and who is currently serving a prison sentence. Eight Catholics have been killed by Loyalists since the 1994 ceasefire.
Slow talks progress
At the time of writing (early December) little progress appears to have been made at the talks. The substantive phase of the talks began in the last week of September. Most of October was taken up with the parties tabling position papers under six headings: principles and requireme