ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the new US administration, and its reaction to alleged IRA misadventures in Colombia and 9/11, opened up the possibility of such a fundamental shift occurring. In spite of the recognition that 'ordinary unionism' was becoming alienated from the Agreement on 18 January, Powell engaged in negotiations with republicans the very next day, and soon thereafter he offered an unqualified promise to revise policing legislation after a review if the republican leadership would endorse the police. In order to get the SDLP to endorse policing, the two governments offered the party reviews of murders where security collusion was suspected by the Canadian jurist Peter Cory. According to Powell, however, the Irish government put the party under 'huge pressure' not to endorse the police until an inclusive deal that Sinn Fein could accept was available, a move that the SDLP" Seamus Mallon characterised as unforgivable.
