David Trimble was “extraordinarily rude” to Tony Blair during tense negotiations about the implementation of the Good Friday agreement, accusing the then prime minister of laying a “crude trap” for unionists, one Irish official wrote of the encounter in 1999.
The meeting between Blair and Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionist party, took place in Belfast as the British prime minister and Ireland’s taoiseach Bertie Ahern met all the Northern Ireland parties to discuss the steps that needed to be taken to implement the peace accord.
In June 1999, Trimble was under immense political pressure to ensure decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, after signing his party up to the historic agreement a year earlier.
A briefing paper, written by an Irish civil servant and newly released to Ireland’s national archives, notes that Trimble’s arrival at the meeting with a delegation of 10 was “a clear reflection of the lack of trust within the party and of Trimble’s limited room for manoeuvre”.
The dispute arose over a form of words in a document to which the two prime ministers wanted all parties to agree. It listed three principles on decommissioning, one of which stated that the process of putting weapons out of use was “to be carried out in a manner determined by the Independent Commission on Decommissioning”.
The unionists were concerned about whether “manner” meant the commission could decide the timing of decommissioning, or the way in which paramilitary arsenals were disposed of.
Those at the meeting included Jeffrey Donaldson, now the leader of the Democratic Unionist party but at the time a UUP MP, who said the word “manner” was “vague and imprecise” and clarity on it was needed. Trimble, meanwhile, argued that the third principle “related to modalities and methodology and not timing”.
Blair, the Irish official notes, said the party was reading “far too much into the issue”, and that the word manner “related to methods and modalities”.
While leaving the meeting, Trimble also reportedly had “a very difficult discussion” with two British officials in which he disagreed with the preamble to the three principles, which stated: “Although there is acknowledged disagreement about their implementation, all parties to the Good Friday agreement are committed to the following principles.”
Trimble was concerned that this did not safeguard his concerns about timing; Blair invited him and his delegation to discuss the issue further.
“The tone and approach of Trimble at this session was extraordinarily rude,” writes the Irish civil servant Dermot Gallagher, who says the unionist leader was concerned about being bound by the timing of decommissioning set by the commission and accused it of being a “crude trap” that he had “no intention of walking into”.
Blair “resented the accusation”, according to Gallagher, and said that the decommissioning body could not “unilaterally” decide on timing.
The note then states: “Trimble responded by saying that this was ‘not consistent with what’s there in black and white’, adding that ‘we’ve had crude tricks like this played on us before’.
“When the prime minister responded with ‘not by me’, Trimble added ‘not yet’,” to which Blair replied “in exasperation” that he was trying to help.
The meeting concluded with an agreement to change the preamble to state “disagreement about timing and implementation”.
