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Making Peace by George Mitchell William Heinemann 195 pages Stg£17.99
by Austen Morgan________________As democrats await the republican reaction [Tuesday, 13 April] to the Hillsborough declaration on decommissioning, they have a chance - in this book by the chairman of the multi-party negotiations on Northern Ireland in 1996-98 - to read the inside story of the Belfast Agreement.
Lightly written, and with personal glimpses at times saccharin, the United States former senator, George Mitchell, has produced a book on which many will rely; Making Peace is the personal view of a key player (but politicians and officials, seeking a mention, will have to cope without an index).
Senator Mitchell makes no reference - interestingly - to his ethnic background (Irish turned Lebanese on his father's side). But, when he admits that Nancy Soderberg in the White House (who had worked for Ted Kennedy), 'initially formulated and shaped [his] role in Northern Ireland', he explains some of the initial unionist suspicion.
We're 'going in', said Sir Patrick Mayhew, as the British and Irish governments foisted a humiliated Mitchell on the parties in June 1996.
The book is most useful on the earlier drawing up of the Mitchell principles on democracy and non violence. The British did pressure him to recommend an election, as an alternative to prior decommissioning. But John Major did not - as Sinn Féin maintains - bin the Mitchell report (the senator describes the prime minister as taking 'a temporary sidestep to get to negotiations by a different route…Major's strategy proved to be workable').
Mitchell does not quote his opinion of January 1996 - and that of his fellow chairmen, general de Chastelain of Canada and prime minister Holkeri of Finland - that there was 'a clear commitment' by the paramilitaries to decommission during negotiations; over three years later, we are still waiting for Provo movement on this issue.
Writing this book appears to have been therapeutic, for a former Senate majority leader who had to listen unpaid to Irish talk, talk, talk. Arguments were repeated endlessly. Two unionist parties walked out in July 1997 (Paisley and McCartney, says Mitchell, could have prevented an agreement if they had stayed.) A loyalist party was expelled temporarily during the London session, and Sinn Féin when the talks caravanned to Dublin.
Mitchell controlled his anger (enduring occasional sleepless nights), but this man with the American smile had iron teeth. He set the deadline of Easter 1998 for final agreement.
In the last two weeks, Dublin sought to considerably enhance the Irish dimension. In London, Tony Blair tried to hold the line. Mitchell was upset at his schedule being interrupted, and - in the most revealing part of the book - was forced to distribute a draft paper as his own (even though - he claims - he knew it would provoke the Ulster unionists).
He attributes the rescue of the talks to Bertie Ahern. Having been advised not to back down, and grieving for his dead mother, the taoiseach, walking the Dublin streets alone save for a security officer, made the call on his mobile which allowed the two premiers to negotiate. (Though Mitchell does not say, this story can have only one source.)
Making Peace reveals that the talks were driven by the three independent chairmen, in cahoots with Mo Mowlam ('she swears a lot') and Paul Murphy, who is the unsung hero of Castle Buildings, with the Irish ministers and officials semi-resident in Belfast.
This book confirms that, while the British government ruled out early the solution of joint sovereignty, the Irish government - as the self-appointed guarantor of northern nationalists - achieved something approaching practical joint authority in the conduct of the talks.
Senator Mitchell provides pen portraits of most of the key negotiators. The significance of Blair and Ahern in the last few days is acknowledged. David Trimble - who opens, and almost closes the book - was the decisive political leader; without him, there would have been no Belfast Agreement.
Surprisingly, there is very little on John Hume, and the major reference to Seamus Mallon - now deputy first minister designate - is a reported comment that 'he could take somebody's scrotum, slice off their balls…and they wouldn't know it was done'.
Though Mitchell and his two colleagues were briefed by London and Dublin that Sinn Féin and the IRA were inextricably interlinked, the nice American senator gives the impression of naiveté.
Gerry Adams is described correctly as never having been convicted of IRA membership (despite being let out of internment in 1972 to meet William Whitelaw). But why describe Gerry Adams senior - who was injured in a shoot out with the the RUC in 1942 - as having been 'jailed for five years as a result of his political activities.'? Martin McGuinness is similarly excused: 'no formal charges [have] ever been brought against him.' Not true. He served a prison sentence in the Republic having been convicted of being a member of the IRA.
Despite this, George Mitchell has performed an invaluable service to the people of Northern Ireland. If terrorism is brought to an end, he will be an Irish historical hero. Meanwhile, Making Peace remains a good read.
Austen Morgan is a barrister and was David Trimble's legal adviser at the peace talks.
A version of this review was first published in The Independenton April 9 , 1999.