john Alderdice

Clinton: “Keep the cranes up. Keep the voices free. Keep the votes fair. You’ll figure it out.” #GFA20

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Political leaders of old and today gathered at Queen’s University, Belfast for a day of events focussed on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said that people “should realise that this agreement was never going to support all the problems of Northern Ireland” while former US President Bill Clinton had a triptych of advice for NI: “Keep the cranes up. Keep the voices free. Keep the votes fair. You’ll figure it out.”

1991: Negotiating a Strand 2 talks venue + complaints that Paisley was locked out of his toilet #20YearRule

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One single buff-coloured file, three or four inches thick, contains the stapled minutes of NIO meetings with political parties in May 1991 as they negotiated about the strand one, two and three talks. While perhaps the single most frustrating file I’ve flicked through in PRONI over the last couple of years, the level of detail in the civil service minutes of meetings is incredible, and the retention of humorous asides provides a lot of colour about the characters involved and their relationships.

Centre for Democracy and Peace Building launched today (Alderdice/Donaldson/Maskey)

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The Centre for Democracy and Peace Building was formally launched at lunchtime in the Ulster Museum. Chair Lord Alderdice along with fellow directors Liam Maskey (Intercomm Ireland) and Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP, Causeway Institute) spoke about the role of the centre, the ongoing need for conflict resolution and outlined some of the projects that the centre would be addressing. The centre’s stated purpose is to “uphold and share the values and principles of democracy in order to build peace, stability and …

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