There were 30 drafts to the changes to the Irish Constitution altering Articles 2 and 3, to encompass dropping the territorial claim to the North and defining people in terms of the nation as opposed to the island. The Mitchell document or "the synthesis for a settlement" also went through numerous drafts before it was released to the Northern talks participants early on Tuesday morning.
Both final drafts, which are dependent on referendums and the first only operational on the acceptance of the second, were compiled with the care fitting to their historical import. Yet neither can possibly please all. Indeed, it is said that the Mitchell document might have been more readily acceptable to unionists this week if, in its 60 plus pages, it had contained less detail of what was proposed on the North-South bodies. After all, they, like everyone else, had been told what to expect in Mitchell; the detail gave them an excuse to once again say no.
The Mitchell document was hammered out over weeks by the Dublin civil service team of Paddy Teahon, Martin Mansergh and Wally Kirwan from the Department of the Taoiseach and Dermot Gallagher of Foreign Affairs and the British team led by Quentin Thomas.