Channel Islands proposed as Northern Ireland peace talks location

Thursday 31 August 2017

The Channel Islands were mooted as a possible location for peace talks between deadlocked Northern Irish political parties in the early 1990s, it has emerged.

A dispute over the constitutional status of Northern Ireland engulfed the country in conflict for three decades until 1998, resulting in violent clashes between unionists, who were mostly Protestant and loyal to the Crown, and nationalists, who wanted Northern Ireland to leave the UK and create a united Ireland.

Politicians pushed for a diplomatic solution, but one of the key issues was where those talks should be held.

Previously confidential documents released by the Belfast Public Record Office have now revealed that the archipelago home to Jersey and Guernsey was considered as a potential ‘neutral territory’ for discussions between the two factions. The idea was rejected, however, for being too complex to arrange.

Pictured: Jersey could have set the scene for peace talks between warring Northern Irish political parties in the 1990s according to a government note published after 20 years.

The islands were just one of a number of venue suggestions, including a train straddling the Irish border and a boat.

In one of many declassified files published in the local press this week, a government official recalls former Alliance leader John Alderdice’s meeting with the Secretary of State on 9^th May 1991 in a note:

“He said that he had been thinking about possible venues [for peace talks to take place] and wanted to share his thoughts.

“Were the Channel Islands a possibility, as they were not in the UK?”

The Secretary of State replied that they “were very difficult indeed to secure”. 

Pictured: Lord John Alderdice, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland from 1987 to 1998, met with the Secretary of State to discuss locations for peace talks to take place.

“Dr Alderdice then asked about a boat.

“The Secretary of State referred to his earlier ridiculing of exactly that proposal from Dr Mawhinney, but at times a boat seemed to be coming nearer and nearer!

“Dr Alderdice then said he recalled one international frontier discussion taking place on a railway carriage across the border.

“The Secretary of State responded that a railway carriage across the border in Northern Ireland would certainly not find favour!”