Forcing the Question of Northern Ireland: The Brooke-Mayhew Talks, 1990-1992

Abstract

debate, few voices claimed much of a role in Mitchell's accomplishment for failed Brooke-Mayhew talks?the last previous effort to solve Ireland's Trou bles An understanding of what happened during those talks, however, may contribute much to our understanding of Mitchell's success: adding two names to debate about who made Good Friday Agreement possible helps to explain why search for a settlement continues still That previous effort originated with appointment of Peter Brooke as secretary of state for Northern Ireland in July, 1989. His predecessor, Tom King, had assumed that responsibility on September 16,1985, two months before signing of Anglo-Irish Agreement that established Anglo-Irish Confer ence ?regularly scheduled meetings between two governments to discuss affairs in Northern Ireland?with a secretariat at Mayfield. Because no Union ists participated in negotiations that produced that agreement, they believed that British not only had imposed an Irish dimension on affairs of Northern Ireland, but also added the machinery to implement it. Consider able, constant, and bitter protest followed?a good bit of which Unionists directed at Northern Ireland secretary.1 In that atmosphere, on September 14,1987? after two years of considerable effort, King opened what became a series of relatively quiet private talks with Unionist leaders to learn how they could shape an acceptable government struc