George J. Mitchell - Making Peace

ALSO BY GEORGE J. MITCHELL

Men of Zeal: The Iran-Contra Hearings (with William Cohen)

World on Fire: Saving an Endangered Earth

Not for America Alone:
The Triumph of Democracy and the Fall of Communism

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC .

Copyright 1999 by George J. Mitchell

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions.

Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York.

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Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Owing to limitations of space, all permissions to reprint previously published material may be found on .

Excerpt from No Hope for Tomorrow reproduced by kind permission of Karyn A. Woods.

eISBN: 978-0-307-82448-6
LC 99-61004

v3.1

For my wife, Heather, and my son, Andrew,
and for his sixty-one friends in Northern Ireland

T HIS is not a history of Northern Ireland, nor is it a history of the negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement. Rather, this is a personal account of my experiences in Northern Ireland. I have included accounts of other events as I needed to provide a clearer context and meaning.

From February 1995 through May 1998 I spent most of my time going to, coming from, and working in Northern Ireland. It was the most difficult task I have ever undertaken, far more demanding than the six years I served as majority leader of the United States Senate. But it was well worth the effort; the outcome was the most gratifying event of my public life.

Northern Ireland is a captivating land of great natural beauty, of green fields and rolling hills. It is a land well watered by oceans, rivers, and loughs, rain, mist, and fog. It is inhabited by shrewd and hardy people who are energetic, articulate, tough, and pragmatic. They have inflicted terrible suffering on one another. Their history includes a litany of vicious beatings, brutal murders, and devastating bombings. For a long time death, destruction, and maiming were routine. The well-attended, highly emotional funeral was a part of the social fabric.

Perhaps because the people have seen so much death, they love life. They are warm and generous and they have an earthy sense of humor. They love to eat and drink, and they love to talk even more; how they love to talk! I have been told that Im a good listener; I got plenty of practice in Northern Ireland. For the two years of negotiations, I listened and listened, and then I listened some more. At times it was interesting, at times entertaining; it was also often repetitive, frustrating, and deliberately quarrelsome.

Once among the people of Northern Ireland, I became increasingly fond of them. I can never be one of them, of course, but I enjoyed enough of their laughter and shared enough of their grief that I feel very close to them.

I am an American, proud to be a citizen of what I believe to be the most open, the most free, the most just society in human history. But a large part of my heart will forever be in Northern Ireland.

I am afraid.

Afraid of the land that I live in,

That I was born in.

The ground I tread each day

Resounds with shots,

With screams;

It is saturated with tears,

Tears that have never ceased flowing.

I have never known peace.

Excerpted from a poem entitled No Hope For Tomorrow,
written during the Troubles by Karyn Woods of Northern Ireland
when she was fourteen years old.

T HE telephone in my office rang at 4:45 p.m. David Trimble was on the line. This was the call Id been waiting for. That morning we had distributed the final version of the agreement to the British and Irish governments and the eight Northern Ireland political parties, which were involved in the negotiations to end the conflict. Throughout the day I had been talking with the leaders of the parties. Hows it going? Have you been through the agreement? What do you think? What do your people think? Can you vote for it? When can I set the meeting to vote on it? I tried to answer their questions, to ease their doubts. I was very tired, but I had to be wide awake for this, the last day, a day of questioning, exhorting, pleading.

Gradually the leaders responded. Some were enthusiastic, others restrained but positive. By four oclock I had heard from both governments and seven of the parties, all of whom were prepared to support the agreement.

Only the Ulster Unionists remained. Theirs was the largest and most important of the unionist parties, so their vote would be decisive. Under the complex voting procedure governing the negotiations, the Ulster Unionists were one of four participants who had veto power. If they said no, the agreement was dead, the peace process over. Twenty-two months of negotiations were about to endand I still didnt know how.

The Ulster Unionists had been in a closed meeting all afternoon, and the rumors were flying: Their delegates were badly divided, shouting at one another; they were working it out. They were against it; they were for it. David Trimble, their leader, was in control; Trimble had lost control. The meeting would be over soon; it could go on all day.

I could no longer tell fact from fiction, reality from rumor. So I waited, tired and nervous, thinking about how to deal with a no vote from the Ulster Unionists. I didnt have to worry about a yes vote. That would be easy to handle. But a no would have profound adverse consequences. Many more people could die.

I had been involved in the peace process in Northern Ireland for more than three years, the last twenty-two months as chairman of the negotiations. It had all come down to this last call from Trimble. An agreement could mean peace after centuries of conflict and decades of war, during which thousands had been killed and tens of thousands injured. An agreement could save so many lives, give hope to so many people. Failure could mean more years of war, more death, more destruction, more despair. After so much effort it would be a crushing letdown.

I took a deep breath and picked up the phone.

Hello, David.

Hello, George.

Hows it going?

Were ready.

Are you all right?

Were ready to do the business.

Thats great. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Id like to call the meeting as soon as possible. Can you be ready in fifteen minutes?

Yes.

Id like it to be a short meeting. No long speeches. Lets get to a vote right away. Everyone can talk as long as they want afterward.

Thats fine with me.

Ill see you at five.

I took a deep breath and felt tears welling in my eyestears of exhaustion, tears of relief, tears of joy. I had to sit down.

As majority leader of the United States Senate, I had learned that when youve got the votes, you vote. Delay can only hurt. After long and difficult negotiations, the votes were there for the agreement. I was determined that they be cast as soon as possible. I didnt want to take a chance on a last-minute change of mind. I instructed my staff to notify the governments and the leaders of the other parties that there would be a formal session of all of the negotiators at five oclock, and that I wanted a short meeting and an early vote.