Inside the Peace Process

JONATHAN Powell was at British Prime Minister Tony Blair's side throughout the Irish peace process and was the point man for the British government throughout that critical time.

Powell has now set down his memoir of that intense period, and the book is expected to be released in May to coincide with the first anniversary of the new government in the North.

Powell certainly has some juicy stories to tell. The book will show how peace was achieved by "fallible men and women working at the limits of their endurance."

At one stage, Powell reveals he physically stopped two key figures from leaving a vital meeting in order to try and sustain the talks.

There are some lighter moments too. "Once during talks with Martin McGuinness, the minute hand on my watch went wonky," said Powell last week. "Martin noticed it and offered to get it repaired. He said he knew a good watch shop in Derry. I was a bit worried but agreed.

"Two weeks later the watch came back. It seemed fine, but I was concerned that spying devices might be inside. So our security had it checked."

The book will include numerous stories of secret meetings and the derring do that accompanied the extraordinary triumph of making peace in the North.

There are details of meetings in the early hours with Adams at a secret address in Belfast, and meetings with McGuinness at a monastery. "But it's not a kiss and tell book," Powell says. Hmm, sounds like it.

Powell says he has told Blair, Trimble, McGuinness and Adams about the book, as well as the Northern Ireland Office. It also has to be submitted for clearance to the Cabinet Office.

Blair recently said, "A lasting settlement would not have been achieved without the intense involvement of Jonathan Powell."

Guessing Wrong On Adams

IN an earlier life Powell was a key figure in the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. at the height of the efforts by Irish American leaders to win a visa for Gerry Adams to come to the U.S.

Ironically, given his later role, Powell was very much the point man on the diplomatic circuit opposing the Adams visa and was so confident that the Sinn Fein leader would not be allowed come that he bet a leading figure on the other side that Adams would never succeed.

He was wrong of course, but in fairness to Powell, when he took over as Blair's chief confidante, he tackled the peace process in a very evenhanded manner.

Powell was so fair that himself, Adams and McGuinnness became friends, to the point where Powell recently invited them to his nuptials though neither could attend.

In addition, his brother, Charles Powell, served the same role as key advisor for Margaret Thatcher when she was in power - an extraordinary feat for two brothers, given the incredible gulf between the two prime ministers.

What of the Irish Side?

THE Powell book will be the second from the British side that deals with the peace process in substantive terms. Earlier this year, Alistair Campbell, Blair's spin-doctor, released his memoirs, some of which cover this period.

Of course we can expect former Prime Minster Blair to also deal with the issue when he writes his own memoirs, expected in 2008 or so.

That raises the question of whether the British government will have a lock on the official record of the period which will be seen by historians as the most important since the partition of Ireland and the Civil War back in the early 1920s.

The Irish government arguably played an even bigger role than the British, especially in their negotiations with Sinn Fein around the critical period of the first ceasefire.

There have been no memoirs from Albert Reynolds, John Bruton or Bertie Ahern, the three leaders who were in charge during this period - nor are there likely to be, say insiders. It is just not the done thing.

Clearly, the Irish system is not geared for insider books by people intimately involved in the negotiations. More is the pity really, as there are some outstanding anecdotes about how peace got made during those critical years.

Tear Down The Walls

IT may not be as dramatic as Ronald Reagan asking Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, but an Irish Times op-ed piece last week made a similar request for Belfast's "peace walls" to be dismantled at least in part.

The article was written by Trina Vargo, head of the US-Ireland Alliance, who has called for some part of the peace wall to come down in a symbolic gesture when the first anniversary of the new government is reached in May.

Vargo may well be on to something here, as there are big plans afoot around the first anniversary to have all the major figures from the signing of the Belfast Agreement available around that date in Belfast.

It would certainly send a symbolic message around the world, and the reaction to the Irish Times article has been very positive on all sides.

Whether it happens remains to be seen, but it is certainly an interesting Irish American contribution to shaping the future in the North.