Deniable Contact Back-Channel Negotiation in Northern Ireland

Deniable Contact provides the first full-length study of the secret negotiations and back-channels that were used in repeated efforts to end the Northern Ireland conflict. The analysis is founded on a rich store of historical evidence, including the private papers of key Irish Republican leaders and British politicians, recently released papers from national archives in Dublin and London, and the papers of Brendan Duddy, the intermediary who acted as the primary contact between the IRA and the British government on several occasions over a span of two decades, including papers that have not yet been made publicly available. This documentary evidence, combined with original interviews with politicians, mediators, civil servants, and Republicans, allows a vivid picture to emerge of the complex maneuvering at this intersection.

Deniable Contact offers a textured account that extends our understanding of the distinctive dynamics of negotiations conducted in secret and the conditions conducive to the negotiated settlement of conflict. It disrupts and challenges some conventional notions about the conflict in Northern Ireland, offering a fresh analysis of the political dynamics and the intra-party struggles that sustained violent conflict and prevented settlement for so long. It draws on theories of negotiation and mediation to understand why efforts to end the conflict through back-channel negotiations repeatedly failed before finally succeeding in the 1990s. It challenges the view that the conflict persisted because of irreconcilable political ideologies and argues that the parties to conflict were much more open to compromise than the often-intransigent public rhetoric suggested.

Niall Ó Dochartaigh, Professor of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland Galway

Niall Ó Dochartaigh is Personal Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland Galway. He has published extensively on the Northern Ireland conflict and on mediation, peace negotiations, and territorial conflict. Previous publications include the co-edited books Political Violence in Context (ECPR Press 2015), Dynamics of Political Change in Ireland: Making and Breaking a Divided Island (Routledge 2017), and a seminal study of the Northern Ireland conflict: Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the birth of the Irish Troubles(Palgrave Macmillan 2005). He was a founding convener of the Standing Group on Political Violence of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and the Specialist Group on Peace and Conflict of the Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI).

Introduction: Negotiating Political Violence
1. Escalation: 'Their War Got Out of Hand and Ours Got Out of Hand Too'
2. Negotiation: 'Dogmatic and Impossible Demands'
3. The Intermediary: 'A Vessel to be Used'
4. Contact: 'Climbing a Mountain Without Ropes'
5. 1975 Ceasefire: 'Everyone Trying'
6. Long War and a Policy Vacuum: 'Passing the Time Decently'
7. The Hunger Strikes: 'Playing Their Last Card'?
8. British Policy and IRA Strategy: 'A Difficult Hand to Play'
9. Back to the Back-Channel: 'They Should Tell Us Privately'
10. Peace Process: 'All Their Cards on the Table Including the Deeds of Their House'
Conclusion: Negotiation, Transformation and Strategic Action
Epilogue: Diaries of a Long-Distance Runner