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The Irish state newspapers covering the construction of the ‘Good Friday’ peace agreement have just published the documents covering the period from 1991 to 1998.
The decommissioning (disuse) of paramilitary weapons dominated the period.
Twelve months after the 1994 IRA ceasefire, talks on all sides about the future of Northern Ireland had not begun, which angered Sinn Féin.
This came despite suggestions that US President Bill Clinton might pay a historic visit in late November 1995.
Unionist parties and a conservative UK government led by John Major were insisting on what was called the “Washington Three” – the actual dismantling of some IRA weapons before allowing Sinn Féin into talks.
For the British it would be a gesture of proof that the war was over for skeptical trade unionists.
But Republicans viewed it as an insistence on what constituted surrender that would disrupt the Republican movement.
State documents released Tuesday show skepticism in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the British Army about the military benefits of dismantling.
They also show skepticism at the heart of the UK government, according to former US Congressman Bruce Morrison.
In July 1995 he told Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) John Bruton that Michael Ancram, Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office (NIO), had “admitted that handing over weapons was unrealistic and the British knew this” at a meeting. with an Irish-American delegation.
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