Friday Book: Confessions of a peacemaker

MAKING PEACE BY SENATOR GEORGE MITCHELL, HEINEMANN, pounds 17.99

AS DEMOCRATS await the republican reaction next Tuesday to the Hillsborough declaration on decommissioning weapons, they have a chance to read the inside story of the Belfast Agreement in this book by the chairman of the multi-party negotiations on Northern Ireland. Many commentators will come to rely on this lightly written volume, with its personal glimpses that at times taste saccharine, from the former US senator George Mitchell. 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 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.

The book is most useful on the drawing-up of the Mitchell principles on democracy and non-violence. The British did pressurise him into recommending an election, as an alternative to prior decommissioning. But John Major did not - as Sinn Fein maintains - bin the Mitchell report. The senator describes the then Prime Minister as taking "a temporary side-step to get to negotiations by a different route... Major's strategy proved to be workable".

Mitchell does not quote his opinion of January 1996 - shared by 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. Now, over three years later, we are still waiting for Provo.

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. (Ian Paisley and Robert McCartney, says Mitchell, could have prevented an agreement if they had stayed.) A loyalist party was expelled temporarily during the London session, and Sinn Fein 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 a final agreement.

In the last two weeks, Dublin sought to enhance the Irish dimension. In London, Tony Blair tried to hold the line. Mitchell was upset at his schedule being interrupted. In the most revealing part of the book, he explains that he was forced to distribute a draft paper as his own even though - he claims - he knew that 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. Although Mitchell does not say so, 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, the unsung hero of Castle Buildings. (The Irish ministers and officials were semi-resident in Belfast.) This book confirms that, while the British government ruled out the solution of joint sovereignty early on, 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".

Although Mitchell and his two colleagues were briefed by London and Dublin that Sinn Fein and the IRA were inextricably interlinked, the nice American senator gives the impression of naivety on this score. 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 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". This is not true. He served a prison sentence in the Republic, having been convicted of being a member of the IRA.

Despite this lapse, 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.

The reviewer is writing `The Belfast Agreement: a practical legal analysis' for Sweet & Maxwell