ABSTRACT
In the autumn of 1997 it had been agreed that when, and if, substantive talks ever began, the discussions would proceed upon the three-stranded basis of the Brooke and Mayhew talks. Very little had been accomplished Yet here the delegates were furiously debating what had or had not been agreed to in an earlier meeting about whether we should or should not move the whole process to London and Dublin, and who said what to which newspaper. It was 1970 all over again, except the Provisionals were now the party determined to work within the political system and not seek to destroy it. This chapter examines how far Sinn Fein's position was from the other parties, including the SDLP, and how far it would have to travel to be part of an agreement. Lack of confidence, born of sense that events were conspiring against them, had played a significant part in the drift of Unionism towards extremism after 1993.
