On March 3 best friends Philip Allen, a Protestant, and Damien Trainor, a Catholic, were shot dead by the LVF in a bar in Poyntzpass in County Armagh.
Here, on eamonnmallie.com former SDLP Mark Durkan reflects on those killings from inside the Peace Talks and he gives us an insight into SDLP thinking back then.
It is impossible to avoid so many references to the fact that we are approaching the 25th Anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. (Or the 1998 Agreement as frequently cited in Windsor Framework texts). Media and academic resources have already been booking and banking recorded reflections from some of us who were in the Talks which produced that historic Agreement. Understandably, a lot of the interviewers’ interest is about the colour and heat of events in Castle Buildings in those final days culminating in Good Friday itself.
There will be much to remember, many to acknowledge and real worth to value when events next month reflect on what was achieved 25 years ago, how and why. Recollections then should validly reflect on some underachievements in translating the Agreement’s promise as well as counting the progress rooted in its purpose - which should not be taken for granted.
In my own memory, 25 years ago, this week stands out as a telling - if then unpromising - juncture in our peace and talks processes.
Senator George Mitchell had not yet set the deadline of 9 April. There was only the working indication that both Governments and Senator Mitchell were not envisaging the Talks going beyond the month of May. Even in early March that indicative timeline was not yet inducing any obvious attunement of thinking across parties inside the talks on institutional structures across the three Strands, or on accompanying rights and equality platforms.
The UUP were still arguing for a committee-based Assembly with no ministers and North-South arrangements only as a subsidiary of East-West; the SDLP were pressing for ministers appointed by elective inclusion and those ministers engaged in both new North-South and East-West structures; Sinn Fein were still denouncing January’s two Governments’ Propositions of Heads of Agreement as a partition solution and postering “No Return To Stormont” Alliance meanwhile were canvassing voluntary coalition with differential roles, including Speaker, accorded hierarchically to the three designations according to size.
At a more public level, divided doubts about the prospect of the Talks’ viability had been reinforced by the fact that, in two different episodes, the UDP and Sinn Fein respectively had been suspended by the two Governments. These sanctions - under the same Talks rule - had overshadowed the symbolism and intended impetus of the multi-party Talks going to London (Lancaster House) for a week at the end of January and three weeks later being in Dublin Castle.
The Governments had pronounced the temporary expulsion of the UDP on 26 January in response to their acceptance of Police and intelligence assessments that the UDA/UFF were reponsible for certain recent killings and other attacks. Sinn Fein contested – both politically and legally - the proposal for similar sanction against them because the IRA were deemed by Police to be responsible for two killings. They were temporarily expelled by both Governments on 20 February until 9 March. The UDP were able to rejoin the Talks on 23 February.
However, the violent events attributed to the IRA and UDA/UFF in that period were far from the only murderous deeds and attempted attacks in those early months of 1998. The Continuity IRA and the Loyalist Volunteer Force were both viciously active in this phase with bomb plots and murders, not just to attack planned or random targets but the whole peace process. That wider and apparently deepening pattern of violence was a pressing factor in the governments both – reluctantly - imposing sanctions for the credibility of the Mitchell Principles as the basis of negotiations but also qualifying these to project and protect a continuing commitment towards achieving an inclusive agreement.
(It would be remiss not to acknowledge, in passing, how heavily all this weighed on Mo Mowlam, recalling how she had taken risks in anticipation of a deterioration, her resilience in managing parties’ consternation and her special ability to engage confused and worried public sentiment).
It was 25 years ago, on 3 March 1998, that the LVF escalated its spate of atrocity by murdering two remarkable friends in Poyntzpass. That night’s media reports conveyed the shocking cruelty of two innocent men being shot together on a floor in the Railway Bar. Morning radio brought mournful witness from Poyntzpass to the special friendship between DamienTrainor and Philip Allen, one Catholic, one Protestant; one due to be the other’s best man.
Seamus Mallon rang me to advise that he was on his way to Poyntzpass rather than the Talks where we were to be in a format of two per party. He hoped that David Trimble might also be there. With some emotion, he told me that the scheduled Strand One Talks must proceed that day.
Around the Talks table there was a sombre but palpable sense of purpose as the parties present affirmed the need to show the primacy of dialogue over violence. I said that the warm stories of Philip and Damien’s special friendship could be a parable for the sort of society that we might create if we could reach agreement. Agreeing with declarations that we should not allow the last word go to paramilitaries out to undermine the process, I reminded colleagues that, under our agreed rules, the people were to have the last word. But that would only come if we - including Sinn Fein (not then present) - produced an agreement.
The subsequent Strand One discussion included criticism of our D’Hondt proposals for Ministerial appointments on grounds like “democratic deficit” and fears of “solo runs” or “rogue ministers”. We in turn were again questioning deficiencies in others’ proposals. The exchanges were perhaps less rhetorical with all parties offering comparative critiques.
Lunchtime’s TV news carried the pictures of Seamus and David together in Poyntzpass. I was struck by the image of leaders from two diffferent traditions symbolically binding the wounds of the community. My mind moved to an idea of joint First Ministers being jointly elected by the Assembly as a way of answering some of the conundrums and criticisms attaching to our D’Hondt proposals. In the following week, John Hume, Seamus and our Talks team chaired by Brid Rodgers agreed that we should draw up outline options including possible roles for joint and equal First Ministers in the event that the UUP still held out against any Executive Committee or cabinet-style model. It would be another couple of weeks before we would share worked-over draft texts with others.
Sinn Fein did not return as allowed on 9 March. They did not rejoin in Castle Buildings until 23 March, having first met the Prime Minister and Taoiseach respectively in London and Dublin and choosing their own time for re-entry after St. Patrick’s Day. The SDLP met Sinn Fein bilaterally in that period away from the Talks venue with still predictable differences on the possible outline of a deal but more agreement on a pressing timeline.
The SDLP had previously been pressing George Mitchell to set a definitive deadline. In reply to particular assertions by Seamus, George had told us “I am Humpty Dumpty and can only jump once….”. He was not ruling one out but was stressing the importance of timing and questioning the insufficient evidence of alignment or adjustment across parties’ thinking.
Our impressions from bilaterals with different parties, including the Women’s Coalition, was of a growing but cautious sense about the possible value of a deadline. The galvanised resolve of 4 March to confound those dedicated to violence seemed to turn to acceptance that we could not continue to simply talk at each other. Much less could we afford to go on talking past each other avoiding issues like policing on which Mo Mowlam honourably issued a public paper without prejudice on 4 March.
Sen Mitchell obviously gauged such sentiment from parties too. He had also earned a high level of public confidence and had his own sense of the public’s mood. On 25 March, he set the deadline of 9 April – Holy Thursday. Ours was hardly the only delegation room to predict a long Good Friday.
In a few weeks time, there will be recollections of big name contributions to arriving at the Agreement on 10 April. There will be competing or complementary attributions of influence, appreciations of decisive acceptances and celebrations of collective political achievement next month but I am personally moved to remember those impactful but uncertain days in early March 25 years ago. In particular, I feel compelled to remember Philip Allen and Damien Trainor and how their cruel loss and true friendship reached us through the fog of contested negotiations.