Description: "In June 1996, after 30 years of bloody conflict, the British government convenes Multi-Party Talks to try to establish a new relationship within Northern Ireland. The talks invited all Unionist and Nationalists parties who had committed to "peaceful and democratic means" to define the constitutional position of Northern Ireland and to find new arrangements on the key relationships - within Northern Ireland, within the whole of the island of Ireland, and between the British and Irish government. Underneath these issues were fundamental questions on national identity and democracy. Those talks bogged down in procedure and frustration, failing to produce any substantive progress. But then, in May 1997, the election of Tony Blair with a clear Labour Party majority, in the British Parliament provides the opportunity to re-energize the talks. Players will represent the major parties in Northern Ireland as they reconvene at the Multi-Party talks in 1997 to confront what to do about the issue of decommissioning and to try to make progress on discussion of the three Strands. Much is at stake for another failure could lead to a full resumption of the civil war." -- Publisher's website.
Brief description: John M. Burney is retired professor of history at Doane University.