O’Conall Street

It’s party night on O’Conall Street. Tonight at around 8.00pm the Yes campaign will rock again to mark the 10th anniversary of the U2 - Ash Concert which brought together John Hume and David Trimble and swung a referendum campaign in tailspin.

Looking forward to seeing the SDLP, UUP, Alliance, Womens Coalition, Trade Unionists and business leaders who mobilised the often silent majority for the better future. Looking forward also to seeing many of the ordinary foot soldiers who campaigned for an won a referendum which opened the gates of possibility on this island.  

If you were involved are you have not heard about our little party come down to the Errigle Inn on the Ormeau Road tonight. If you are already coming, see you there.  The blog title? U2 fretted about what to play and settled on One. I thought it was a perfect choice.

Speaking of the silent majority. With Ms Ruane, the North’s Education Minister, continuing to prove that she is more interested in a victory over the DUP than in reaching agreement with them about our children’s future I am reminded of the words of the great poet, Percy Bysshe Shelly:

“Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.”

We are in the middle of the week ten years ago when it all turned sour. On the 10th of May the Balcombe St Gang paraded themselves at the Sinn Fein Ard Feis in Dublin and on the 14th Michael Stone returned the favour at the Ulster Hall in Belfast. In just one week the referendum went from being about the future to a ’celebration’ of some of the worst killing sprees in the troubles. This had a major impact on the middle ground and the Yes campaign began to hemorrhage support, particulalry amongst middle of the road protestants.

So much is different now. The achievements of the past decade are many and the progress had been substantial yet the sense that we remain in transition is still with us.

I had a long conversation this weekend with a friend and senior public servant about when, or even if, politics and government will move from this reactive transitional state to a progressive reform agenda. We agreed that what was first required was an effective alternative government, something to give people choice and capable of developing a public policy reform programme which could win popular support. Of course the people also need to decide the time is right to consider policy as well as personality or ‘position’ at election time. That could take the guts of a decade.

On the 20th anniversary of this week a decade ago, I wonder will politics have become more real or will we still in the words of Bono be starring at the sun waiting to go blind…..?

This is an expanded version of an article I have written for this month’s edition of Fortnight Magazine.

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The SDLP is at a cross roads, there is no doubt about that. Many perceived Good Friday 1998 as the fulfilment of its historic mission, yet there is as great a need for strategic leadership on this island today as at any point in the last century.

The Agreement was a decade ago and in the years since the SDLP can rightly claim to feel more than a little shafted by the British and Irish Governments and damaged by the retirement of the entire leadership in the space of two years. The governments played a dangerous game with the SDLP. The party ‘with no guns’ to quote Tony Blair was served up to Sinn Fein as the prize if they cooperated. That never bothered New Labour – they were never going to face them in an election and whilst Fianna Fail were happy to flirt with SF north of the border they played an opposite game in the South, crucifying Gerry Adams and his fellow travellers at the last election.

This is all for the record. The fact is the SDLP is still at the cross roads and little does it matter now how it got there. What does matter is that politicking and side deals aside, the institutions that are being shared in Northern Ireland are SDLP creations - the product of true vision and persistent argument.

Yes, the SDLP is poorly organised in many parts of the North, many MLAs are due an MoT they may or may not pass, and whilst there are enough young faces competing in the succession stakes, the party gives the appearance of treading water. It’s a pity because there is plenty to oppose: from Catriona Ruane’s gambling with our children’s future to a right wing, pay more get less, budget with SF endorsement and the politicking around victims and parades. Never mind the failure to secure a lower corporation tax for our businesses.

The SDLP review group is meeting against this backdrop. Made up of senior members it has been asked to report back on future options for the party. The group isn’t working in a vacuum; it has an important document which informs its members as they consider the party’s future. ‘A United Ireland and the Agreement’, states clearly that “The SDLP also believes that in the context of unity there would be a realignment of politics, with parties of the left – and right – joining together across the island.”

For as long as I can remember, there has always been a group within the party, who publicly present themselves as FF-SDLP. Based on support for their motions at conference I reckon they make up about 20% of members. You might expect the rest of the party to be a loose coalition of FG-SDLP, Lab-SDLP, Green-SDLP or even PD-SDLP. Not so. Outside the FF group, the vast majority of members consider themselves to be SDLP, full stop. They are progressive people who believe in unity through agreement and reject sectarianism and its political mouthpieces. They are more than just nationalists. They campaign for and believe in equality and social justice. They are social democrats and new Irelanders in the true sense of the word and if recent internal party meetings are anything to go by they are willing to continue fighting for their beliefs and the party they love. Not surprising that they would overwhelmingly adopt a document clearly stating that realignment should take place along ideological lines.

These people are smart and highly political. They are keen to enter discussions with other parties in the South and in the North about the future of this small island. They see much to be done in the North and much that would need to change in the South if their ambition of an agreed Ireland is to be achieved.

So where to now? The SDLP has three options; do nothing, continue alone or lead the way in shaping 21st century Ireland. Options one and two are already off the table, the tide waits for no man and the sea is rising all around the SDLP. Nationalism is moving on from the conflict and progressive unionism in increasingly interested in exploring new relationships. This is something the party itself recognises. Hence the interest in exploring new alliances, both sides of the border, in order to build a new agreed Ireland.

Speaking to Fianna Fail, Labour, Fine Gael, the UUP and others is an important step on this journey. I know very few SDLP people who would be against the idea of discussions in principle. In fact the vast majority of SDLP people I know would be very keen to talk to other parties about how progressive politics can play the lead role on this island. Social Democrats are always interested in power. They are not parties of protest but parties of change. No surprise that the Review Group has been given such clear policy guidance then.

The SDLP is a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International alongside many of the world’s most successful parties. If the SDLP were ever to give up this membership they would be surrendering the right to call themselves progressives. They would also be handing Sinn Fein the keys to one of the most influential and powerful political groups in the world. For be under no illusion, SF would apply to join the PES and SI the day after the SDLP left. Gerry Adam’s may sully social democracy on the campaign trail but such statements are about as credible as his denials of ever being in the IRA.

All very well I hear you say. With a decreasing vote and poor organisation it is all fairly academic and now is the time for action not long term strategy. In my mind these are compatible courses of action, not mutually exclusive ones. Many who advocate immediate merger with FF come from some of the most poorly organised parts of the SDLP, many more are not even members of the SDLP. Fianna Fail is all about organisation. It could well turn out that those who want change most could well become its first casualties.

It may be that many of the MLAs, have lost the ability to organise and are searching for a quick fix. On the other hand it may be that they realise just how much they still have, the huge job of work that still needs to be done and the need to get on with it. There will be change. However, nobody surrenders an inch with making another one somewhere else. And some things, like social democracy and the ‘New Ireland’ agenda simply cannot be for sale.

There is a big opportunity for progressive politics on this island. In the commercial world brands change but they never give up their core proposition.  My own view is that the SDLP’s social democracy and membership of the PES is more attractive to other parties on this island than many in the party recognise. The big future for the party is to realise its ambition for a new Ireland without surrendering the core values that delivered peace to this island.

It’s Sunday so why not have an Obama Girl day. For those of you not acquainted with Sen Obama’s no 1 advocate, here is a selection of her ‘work’ . There is no doubt about it, this man has ignited advocates across the States. Hillary may be rocking in NYC with Elton John, but in garages across America the creative juices are definitely flowing for Barack.

I posted last month on my personal reflections of Good Friday 1998 and on some of the key dates which will be be marking here on O’Conall Street over the coming month and a half in the run up to the anniversary of the referendum. Yesterday Mark Durkan reflected on the final days of negotiation and their impact on Ireland. Here is a clip on John Hume on the day which is worth a listen.

Work started early today. We have a major announcement to manage later and the meetings were underway before 8.00am. I did get time to scan the papers before kickoff though and noted some decent journalism across the board marking the day. There is also a conference in Belfast today,  although very few of the actual negotiators except the party leaders will be there. The audience is also somewhat elitist.

The DUP’s Peter Robinson reminded us in the Irish Times this week that he still loathes the Agreement and rejects it entirely. Everyone else disagrees but in what I believe is the enduring testament to its impact on this island, nobody is talking about walking out of the institutions it created or undermining the many changes it brought about.

It’s a shame the day is not properly acknowledged here in Northern Ireland but not a surprise. The DUP although complicit in its working are not going to revise their position and Sinn Fein never liked it much in the first place. Yet all around them is the evidence of its success; a powersharing executive, North - South institutions, a new police force, an equality agenda, a growing economy and peace.

There is still an elephant in the room. A big ugly, scary beast which will take much longer to go away. Our sectarian conflict has bred deep seated sectarian attitudes which are all too alive. This week BBC Spotlight and BBC Panorama both sought to shine a light on the reality of bigotry ten years on. The DUP and Sinn Fein have rejected the one policy mechanism which was in place to tackle this problem - the ‘Shared Future’ document. They say working together is enough to tackle the issue. They could not be more wrong. Sectarianism is not going to just disappear. Like a bad colleague it needs managed out of the system. I hope for all our sakes they recognise this soon and begin in a structured way to tackle the problem.

That would be a real achievement and something to celebrate on every anniversary of the Agreement.  

Mark Durkan has made some interesting comments on the final phase of negotiations which were unfolding this day ten years ago. Readers will note his rebuttal of several points made by Jonathan Powell in his recent book. After three decades of conflict I agree with Mark when he describes the agreements overwhelming endorsement by the people of Ireland as the emancipation of hope. 

• The concept of a joint office of equal First Ministers was inspired by the pictures of Seamus Mallon and David Trimble consoling families in Poyntzpass, Co Armagh after the LVF shot dead two best friends – a Catholic and a Protestant – in Canavan’s bar on 3 March 1998, only weeks before the Agreement.  The moving story of Damian Trainor and Philip Allen’s friendship touched us like a parable for a new society.

• Downing Street faxed a draft Strand One outcome exclusively to David Trimble and John Hume on the evening of 30 March and a revised version on the morning of 31 March.  The SDLP believed the text reflected David Trimble’s conversations with Jonathan Powell.  It was no basis for negotiation never mind agreement.  We established that George Mitchell (the Talks Chair), Mo Mowlam, Paul Murphy (Strand 1 Chair) and the Irish Government knew nothing of this approach.  John Hume flew to London on 31 March.  He told Tony Blair that we would not negotiate with a fax machine, insisted on inclusive negotiations and that the Prime Minister should join the all-party Talks in Belfast if he wanted to contribute anything.  The Downing Street paper was withdrawn. 

• Despite Seamus Mallon’s persistent efforts, other parties, for different reasons, did not want to negotiate the policing issue.  This necessitated the creation of an independent commission as part of the Agreement. The success of the new beginning to policing has vindicated the Patten Commission and reflects well on the leadership of the PSNI, the Policing Board (not least its independent members) and the good work of the police Ombudsman.  The SDLP, especially our Policing Board members, can take credit in driving the implementation of Patten.  We resisted flawed legislation from Peter Mandelson and insisted on the pace and pattern of change set out by Patten.  The SDLP helped to ensure, against the odds, that the new policing arrangements, for some time, were the most successful working feature of the Agreement.

• A formula for “sufficient consensus” was a necessary confidence measure in the agreed rules for the Talks themselves.  Why do some find it exceptional or objectionable that such cross-community decision-making protections were also built into the outcome of those Talks? 

• The SDLP resisted all attempts to make “decommissioning” a condition of ministerial office in Strand One.  We were alarmed when, later, the decommissioning text cross-referred to the exclusion provisions of Strand One.  We immediately highlighted the dangers to both governments only to be told by the Irish Government that it was their wording and all would be ok.

• Parties were told that the language of “using… influence…” on decommissioning was to accommodate Sinn Fein who were saying that clearer mandatory wording would make it harder to them to sell any agreement.  We were also told by both Governments that they had “real commitments” from Sinn Fein.  Government figures also told parties that the end-date for prison releases of the end of June 2000 was deliberately later than the end date for decommissioning of May 2000. 

• Tony Blair inherited a good hand on Northern Ireland when he came to office and deserves huge credit for playing it well in getting the Agreement.  However, his side-letter to David Trimble on Good Friday and his distortive intervention during the referendum started the rot as far as authoritative interpretation and proper implementation was concerned. 

• The Agreement’s overwhelming endorsement – North and South – on 22 May 1998 was the high-water mark for democratic consensus and constitutional legitimacy in Ireland.  From that point “the process” should have been the inclusive institutions and those institutions “the process”.  Instead, the two governments put the premium on an ulterior process outside the institutions starring two parties, rather than the inclusive institutions themselves.  Suspension never occurred as a result of the institutional workings but because of failures in the process as managed by the two Governments.  The McCartney sisters, in early 2005, taught the experts and handlers a lesson in how to make the Provisional movement move. 

• John Hume and Seamus Mallon used to complain to Tony Blair about his dealings and side-dealing – with Sinn Fein and David Trimble only serving to frustrate the Agreement.  He replied “You guys, your problem is you don’t have guns”.  I utterly refute Jonathan Powell’s attempts to rewrite that counsel of cynicism against Seamus Mallon.   

• The SDLP said in 1998 that we designed the Agreement to ensure partnership between those who voted ‘yes’ and those who voted ‘no’ as well as between Unionists and Nationalists, and so it is proving. We now have a settled process as all parties, at last, accept power-sharing, north-south structures and a reformed police service. We must not revert to the stop-go process that hampered the Agreement for too long. Of course, our problems are not all behind us. The Good Friday Agreement endorsed by the people, was the emancipation of hope. Our task is the emancipation of opportunity.”

I was debating Bertie Ahern’s legacy on the BBC Hearts and Minds programme last Thursday with Stephen Collins and Fionnuala O’Connor when she described Bertie Ahern as the first ‘post nationalist’ Taoiseach. I parked the thought at the time partly to placate my nerves at being on TV with two highly respected journalists, partly because I found the concept genuinely thought provoking. Mick Fealty of Slugger O’Toole dropped by O’Conall Street today for a coffee and a chat (more about that later in the week) and the topic came up again. Then I saw Stephen King, Trimble’s former adviser on a similar line in the Sunday Business Post.

So where did all this ‘post nationalist’ stuff come from? As far as I remember the term first entered the political lexicon during a Hearts and Minds interview John Hume gave as SDLP Leader during the 1999 European election a year after the Good Friday Agreement. It was followed by an article which SDLP MLA John Dallat wrote in the Irish News about the same time.  John Hume used the term to illustrate the need for politics on this island to move beyond the narrow nationalisms which have dominated for too long. At the time Sinn Fein seized on the comment and tried to turn it on the SDLP claiming it meant the SDLP was no longer a ‘nationalist’ party. That their argument held no water was incidental. The North was not ready to move beyond the rhetoric of conflict and they tried to punish the SDLP for seeking to do so. For the record Hume defended his seat comfortably.

Is Bertie a ‘post nationalist’ then? Those who would argue yes say he has moved beyond the rhetoric of nationalism to canvass votes - he lead the dropping of articles two and three. That he is confident enough in his identity not to be a hostage to it. That he proved capable of engaging with other nationalisms, taking the inherent differences as a given and creating space for common ground a mutual respect to emerge. And that he put people first - jobs, education and prosperity, before narrow arguments about identity. On those grounds, they argue, definitely a postnationalist.

Bertie Ahern is a true blue Dubliner. For that matter so am I. He is a working class boy made good. Ditto here too (although he mas made much much better then me!). He is a proud republican and a committed Irish nationalist who believes in the principle of consent. So are the majority of people across this island.  As Taoiseach he claimed to be a social democrat (viva el socialismo) and was undoubtedly an internationalist. He seemed happy to explore his role as the leader of a new Ireland, prosperous, diverse and in an ever deepening dialogue with the very many people on this island who consider themselves British. Ahern, like Hume left his prejudices at the door. He appeared as interested in jobs as in policing. By design or deliberately Fianna Fail today, thanks to him, is more ‘new republican’ then ‘old republican’.

Why is this interesting then? The word on O’Conall Street is that we will not see a referendum on a united Ireland this side of 2020. Just as well, because if it is ever to succeed one thing is certain. Irish nationalists will need to have convinced a significant part of the unionist community that a yes vote is not such a bad thing and that their identity, rights and economic status will not be affected by a unitary state. In other words unity will only be true when it unites people and their representatives have a lot of talking to do before they can claim to be united. The divisions are not just in Northern Ireland. There is a fault line between North and South built on seventy years of jurisdictional disparity. In the South church and state coexist in a way which has worked well for the 26 counties but would be unsustainable in a united Ireland and several generations have ignored the North, wishing it away with the coarse remark that ‘you are all the same up there’. Southerners do not understand northern nationalists and despite a constitutional claim over the territory which lasted until ‘98, bizarrely see unionists as foreigners.

Stephen King tells the story of when Bertie Ahern apologised to the UUP delgation after they were asked to remove their poppies before a meeting with him. That was back in the run up to the agreement. Ahern was right. The poppy is precious to very many people on this island and that is something we simply need to accept. It is also means something to tens of thousends of Irish nationalists who lost their ancestors in the First World War.  To describe it as offensive is to stand there waiting to be offended. There are very many symbols, British and Irish, which will not survive in the new Ireland. I think the poppy will and so it should. But poppies won’t put money in your pocket no more than you can eat a flag.

When communities prosper they have the opportunity move on. When people’s standard of living goes up their insecurities go down. The south maybe be more postnationalist today then twenty years ago and that is partly down to its prosperity. The north can prosper too and with increased wealth, spread across the whole community, attitudes will change and priorities will shift. A stakeholder society will replace and dependency one.  Ahern saw it all happen in the South. I am sure he believes it can happen here too. Maybe that’s what Fionnuala meant when she described him as ‘post nationalist’.

This month’s Irish News article reflects back on the U2 - Ash concert which took place in the face of the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement and which I was lucky to be involved in organising with Tim Attwood and David Kerr. The BBC’s Stu Bailie has a lovely post on his blog about the concert and its impact on the volatile electorate of the time. It was a great event but also a professional achievement for three young men with a lifetime ahead of them. We picked the slogan for the backdrop because it summed up how we thought our generation felt about the agreement. It was time to “Make Your Own History”. Jonathan Powell omits to mention the concert in his recent book yet it created the image which is most reproduced of that time. The British and Irish governments played no part is the amazing coming together that night. That’s what made it special and I guess why he thinks it unimportant.

This is a slightly expanded version of what appears in today’s papers as space did not allow for everything to be included.

 THE DAY U2 CAME TO TOWN

Northern Ireland is not the place from which you expect an interesting case study in political communications to emerge, yet a decade ago during the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement, PR took centre stage.

Generally speaking, political campaigning here is divided along community lines. Press coverage of electoral campaigns has tended to focus on the constitutional question and not bread and butter issues.

What’s all this got to do with Public Relations? Well during the campaign for the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement all this changed. I was the SDLP’s Director of Communications at the time. The party was the driving political force behind the talks and was ready to seize its opportunity on Good Friday. Sinn Fein was on the fence. The DUP had walked out and the UUP had suffered damaging walkouts. Of the big four parties representing over 90% of the electorate, only the SDLP was ready to start campaigning unambiguously for a Yes vote on the referendum on May 22nd.
A group of business and community leaders launched a non partisan Yes campaign at the end of April. Despite this and a very energetic campaign from the SDLP, the first month was dominated by negative stories and setbacks. On April 24th,  three UUP MPs joined Ian Paisley to say ‘no’. They were joined on May Day by the Orange Order. Trimble got the support of the Ulster Unionist Council during the last week of April but the coverage and regular opinion polls pointed to the possibility that a majority of the unionist community might reject the agreement.

Things took a distinct turn for the worse at the Sinn Fein Ard Feis on May 10th when the party’s decision to call for a yes vote was drowned out by the parading of the notorious Balcombe Street Gang on stage with Gerry Adams. This was the penalty kick the No campaign had been waiting for, and the mood particularly amongst middle class unionists, began to shift. This being Northern Ireland, you can’t have one stupid action without another, and four days later Michael Stone and comrades were paraded in front of a jubilant crowd at the Ulster Hall. In less then a week the symbolic image of agreement had become one of convicted paramilitaries being paraded as heroes.  With friends like these who needed enemies.

A positive image was needed to knock these of the front pages and give people something positive to vote for. It also needed to have serious news value: a picture of Hume and Trimble plus celebrity of choice would not be enough. 
On the 13th of May the SDLP invited senior figures from the arts world to publicly support the Agreement. After the event Tim Attwood and I were discussing our dilemma with the film director, Jim Sheridan. Tim mentioned that we had a commitment from Bono to come up and campaign and I pointed out that a simple walk down Royal Avenue would not do. We needed to create an image capable of capturing everyone’s imagination and which symbolised the new beginning. A coffee later and Jim was on the phone to Bono telling him he needed to talk to the rest of the band and come to play a gig. That evening, Tim got a call back from Bono to say they would come and could do the 19th.

When we told David Kerr, the UUP Press Officer of our plan that night he thought we were pulling his leg. The next day David Trimble agreed to be part of the concert alongside Hume. We also invited Ash, a band from Downpatrick, to bring some local flavour and provide balance to the bill.

We decided to leak the story of the gig out gradually to maximise impact. First we would confirm Bono was coming to campaign, next day that other members of the band would be joining him, that Trimble and Hume would campaign together for the first time, that the Waterfront Hall had been booked and finally on the eve of the concert that U2 supported by Ash were going to give an impromptu concert calling for a Yes vote. This guaranteed us four days of front page news before the event and began to shift the agenda away from the RDS and Ulster Hall images.

None of us knew anything about organising a gig much less for the biggest rock and roll band in the world. Cue Eamon McCann, an old college friend of Tim and his brother Alex and a local promoter in Belfast. To this day I am not sure how Eamon did it but in five short days he booked the Waterfront Hall and made it ready for the most historic gig it would ever host.

Next problem was filling the hall. We were worried about it being hijacked if we simply threw open the doors and there was no time to run competitions. Hume always said the agreement was about the future generations so we took our lead from the great man himself and decided to offer tickets to sixth formers across the North. Teams in the SDLP and UUP Head Quarters worked flat out for three days. Gerry Cosgrove, Catherine Matthews, Ronan McCay, Eilis Haughey, Orla Cosgrove and the UUP team played a huge part in making the gig happen by ensuring we had an audience. In the end we were not just turning away fans looking for tickets but a major band also. Late on the the eve of the concert word reached us that the Corrs would like to come and play. Tim and I agreed this could back fire politically and unbalance the bill which was just right with U2 and Ash. That was what our heads said. Every other part of our bodies wanted the best looking and pretty good sounding band in Europe to walk into our lives, even if only for a few hours. Even David, a committed unionist, was equally unhappy at the prospect of letting them down. 

All that remained was to choreograph the image everyone needed. Time was against us and we could not be sure of the quality of the pictures inside the Waterfront Hall so we arranged a ‘door step’ press conference on plaza on the way in. Hume, Trimble, U2 and Ash lined up in front of eighty nine TV cameras and gave a straight up comment. The pictures were good but we had to do better. Bono wanted to bring the men on stage and he eventually talked them in to it; one coming on from each side. He never told them he was going to grab their arms and raise them in a sign of unity. That was as spontaneous as it looked and we had our image. I was standing behind one of the big loud speakers stage right. Hume left my side and strolled out in front of the 2000 crowd. A wall of sound hit him. This was a very special moment and even John, who had addressed presidents and parliaments the world over as well as countless rallies was momentarily stunned by the reception.

Tim Wheeler and Ash did County Down proud that night. After the gig we adjourned to the ‘green room’ for a few jars with the two bands. I got lost in conversation with the Edge whose mother had taught me in primary school. The ladies swarmed Bono like bees to honey and Bono swarmed Hume like a little boy with his hero. We all watched the ten o’clock news. Hume and Trimble knew they had done a good days work and the lads headed back to Dublin with their place in the peace process secure. Before they left I asked Bono if he would he sign my tie. I had read about a tie Teddy Kennedy has on his wall which was signed by the brothers the night Jack was elected president. He wrote BONO and in the middle of the first O made the time on the clock. Under he wrote ‘this is the time’ 19-5-1998,  Larry, the Edge and Adam signed above. It’s framed now and on my wall. A little bit of history for my kids.

The referendum was passed on the 22nd of April 1998. Academics reckon that concert was good for 5%. All I know is we had a new picture for the front pages. In the end we got one for the history books.

I didn’t wake up on Good Friday 1998. I didn’t need to. Nobody had slept in the SDLP negotiating team since Wednesday night. The Mitchell deadline of a deal by Thursday had come and gone but change was in the air and nobody was going home until the job was done.

I had been the SDLP’s Director of Communications since November 1996 and by now was well established with the party’s negotiating team and the press. During 1998 many of us got to know the doyennes of world journalism as they dropped in to be part of history and the agreement. We also built strong and deep relationships with the local press on these islands. Relationships I still treasure today. 

This is a story of two days, a divided and difficult one for unionism during which the UUP haemorrhaged good people but carried on with courage to allow, as Seamus Mallon put it, the beginning of the new beginning to begin. On the other hand it was a day of absolute achievement for the SDLP. The fulfilment of step one of John Hume’s historic mission to change three sets of relationship - between the people of Northern Ireland, the relationship between north and south and finally the historic conflict between the British and Irish states.

The internal divisions within the UUP were affecting the dynamics of the talks and created a stop start atmosphere at times. Sen George Mitchell as always was masterful as were the Taoiseach and Prime Minister, maintaining focus and honing in, bit by bit on the critical issues. The SDLP had been carrying the weight of the talks for nationalism from day one. Right up to Good Friday Sinn Fein would only really engage in Strand 2, North - South issues, which left Mallon, Hume, Durkan, Rodgers, Farren and the rest of the team to negotiate everything else by themselves. If you are ever wondering who to thank for the new beginning in policing, the power sharing executive, the equality protections and guarantees or the North - South Ministerial Council I suggest you shake an SDLP negotiators hand. By the middle of the night it was apparent that agreement was possible. Brid Rodgers hugged a colleague though the blinds and was captured on TV. This was the first sign the media had that we were on the way. Mo popped in (minus wig) for a cuppa. The time had come to say thanks and share a story or two. 

Breakfast came and the staff in the canteen put on their best show. Their were table cloths and salmon and scrambled eggs on the menu. Hume’s favourite and what a perfect way to say thanks. During breakfast I got called from the White House, ‘could Mr Hume take a call from the President?’ . We found a quiet space and he did. ‘Thank you said Bill Clinton, thank you for everything you have done and for never giving up’. When Hume returned with the news it put more than a couple of smiles on the tired faces.

After breakfast the radio and TV news shows. Mallon, Hume and I walked into the perfect spring morning to tour the portable studios and outside broadcast points. They did 25 live broadcasts between them. Aine Lawlor’s RTE interview with John sticks in my mind. He opened it with the words ‘this will be a very good, Good Friday’.

The SDLP delegation room began to fill up during the morning. Partners and spouses joined us. It was their achievement too. They had kept our real lives going during months of talks and endless trips. Pat Hume was adamant we have red roses - the symbol of social democracy - to wear. My wife, Joanne and several others were dispatched to scour East Belfast for as many red roses converted to lapelle flowers as possible. They returned with a box full and wondering if the shops would have been happy to sell them if they knew who would be wearing them and why. The hour or two before the final ceremony were a little weird. The loos were full of grown men taking builders showers and changing suits. The final wording of the agreement was being printed off and passed around. Everyone wanted their’s signed. Our corridor which housed the SDLP, SF and Irish Government delegations was buzzing with congratulations.

Formalities over, we lined up to speak to the press. The PMs went first then us, I think. Ahern said ‘this is a day we should treasure, a day when agreement and accommodation have taken the place of difference and division’. Hume called for the work to continue ‘ once in a generation does an opportunity like this come along, an opportunity to resolve our deep and tragic conflict’. The press conference on the steps of Castle Buildings went on for twenty minutes. The SDLP spoke in English, Irish, French and Spanish and at the end instead of the usual walk away their was applause, sustained applause from the several hundred journalists who decided they wanted to honour and thank the peacemakers. The walk to the OB units was surreal. It is not often that the press hug politicians and even more rare that they cry tears of joy in their company. That day, Good Friday 1998, the dye was cast. These islands had changed and in the words of Seamus Heaney; hope and history rhymed.

The SDLP negotiating team was chaired by Brid Rodgers and lead by Seamus Mallon and of course John Hume was always there for the heavy lifting and the inspirational guidance. It included Mark Durkan, Sean Farren, Denis Haughey, Alex Attwood and Eddie McGrady. Also playing a role were Tommy Gallagher, Patsy McGlone, Alban McGuinness, Frank Feely, Dorita Field (most pictured above in the SDLP rooms during the morning) as well as all the delgates elected to the furum in 1995. Eilis Haughey, Tim Attwood, Gerry Cosgrove, Catherine Matthews and myself, Conall McDevitt, provided the support. That day changed all our lives and remains one of the proudest of my life.

The tenth anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement starts either this Friday (Good Friday) or on April 1oth, the calender anniversary of the signing the agreement. I’ll post something on Friday with my recollections of the day that changed Ireland and a couple of pics from inside the talks. There is a good bit of media interest in the anniversary and I’ll probably pop up somewhere along the line offering a perspective to our local hacks.

With the benefit of a decade of reflection some things stand out more than others. I was directly involved throughout the talks and present every step of the way to Good Friday. Whilst much has been written about the talks, the referendum campaign and subsequent elections are particularly interesting from a communications point of view and have been less well documented.

O’Conall Street will mark the anniversary with reflections, from a communications perspective, on the key moments in the referendum campaign from April 10th. I will look back specifically at the divisions within unionism (particularly in the UUP), the Balcolmbe St Gang appearance at the Sinn Fein Ard Feis, Micheal Stone’s Ulster Hall rally, Tony Blair’s pledges as well as the U2 concert which proved a crucial turning point. I’ll post on each all the way to May 22nd when  over 71% voted yes. hopefully some of my fellow press officers at the time will contribute with their own reflections along the way.

Dates to look out for are:

April 10th - Good Friday Agreement

April 24th - Three UUP MPs join Paisley to say no.

May 1st - Orange Order says no.

May 10th - Balcombe Street Gang at RDS

May 14th -  Michael Stone at Ulster Hall

May 16th - Molyneux says no.

May 17th - Joint Statement from Clinton and Blair

May 19th - U2 Concert

May 20th - Blair pledges

May 22nd - Referendum