Intriguing new detail from behind the scenes of the Northern Ireland peace process will be revealed in a four-part television series to begin this Sunday. Endgame in Ireland, a BBC documentary produced by the makers of the series Death in Yugoslavia, features key figures in the process speaking about their respective roles.
In it, former prime minister John Major discusses his delight at the first secret communications between the British government and the IRA, while Bill Clinton remembers telling Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams to wait for the rise in the Catholic birth rate. Former taoiseach Albert Reynolds is candid about the rows he had with John Major over the joint declaration between the two governments signed in 1993.
Journalists in Belfast were shown part two, Talking to Terrorists, last week. It sheds new light on the origins of the secret communications between republicans and the British government, particularly a message thought to have been sent by Martin McGuinness which stated "the conflict is over".
Former Catholic priest Father Denis Bradley reveals how he was part of "the link" between the republican movement, MI5 and the British government which sent the crucial message in 1993. He claimed the go-betweens comprised two Catholics, one who was "close to the IRA" and another who was "good at reading the minds of the British". Another vital part of the link was a man known as "Fred" who was working for MI5.
John Chilcot, who was permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland office at the time, describes his surprise when a message purporting to be from Martin McGuinness contained the phrase "the conflict is over but we need your advice on how to bring it to a close".
Mr McGuinness denies using those words and Father Bradley claims that "Fred" must have doctored the message before it reached government hands, an amendment which ultimately kick-started the peace process.
The programme details the fraught negotiations between Albert Reynolds and John Major over the Downing Street declaration which was eventually signed by both governments. Speaking about the Anglo-Irish Summit held at Dublin Castle in 1993, Reynolds shows his disgust at a proposed British government draft of the declaration: "I said, `John, this is bad faith. I can't buy it, I won't buy it, we'll have no summit and we'll leave it at that'. What does he take me for? A stupid effing so and so?"
Programme four, Guns and Government, 1996 - 2000, charts the road to the Belfast Agreement and sees a relaxed Gerry Adams admit "most of my best discussions with the unionists were in the men's room where they were a captive audience".
Bill Clinton recounts last-minute phone calls with Adams and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble when the talks looked ready to collapse. "Adams said he still had people in the IRA that really didn't believe in the principle of consent: they wanted to get outta Great Britain. And I told him that he was gonna have to wait for the Catholic birth rate to change the electorate for that to happen."
Later, Peter Mandelson recalls frantic negotiations at Hillsborough Castle which led to the reinstatement of the North's political institutions in May last year after the IRA's statement on decommissioning. "I took the statement up to David Trimble and he reacted with deep scepticism - it took me aback and made me worried," Mandelson says. "I came back 40 minutes later and David was busy with his laptop. . I said, `What are you doing David? You're not rewriting the IRA's statement, are you?' "
Endgame in Ireland begins on BBC 2, Sunday, June 24th, at 8p.m.