Sydney D. Bailey (1916–1995): In Memoriam

Abstract

Sydney Bailey, the great Quaker expert on the United Nations, was a central figure in the life of the Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament (CCADD) from its beginning in 1963. I got to know Sydney best as a member of a working party under his chairmanship which eventually produced Human Rights and Responsibilities in Britain and Ireland: A Christian Perspective (published by Macmillan in 1988). This working party was set up at the highest level, politically and ecumenically (including within its membership Mary Robinson, who subsequently became President of the Irish Republic). The project was, in fact, very much Sydney’s initiative and he worked behind the scenes to bring the group into existence. It was his conviction that, whatever the political outcome in Northern Ireland, there were certain fundamental rights and obligations that needed to be recognised by all parties, and that spelling these out in advance could help ease the way towards a political solution. It was a typical expression of Sydney’s practical, constructive approach to apparently insoluble political dilemmas.