George Mitchell in his new book Making Peace is more than kind to our various ministers for foreign affairs. Dick Spring, he says, is "handsome, intelligent and effective. His very effectiveness made him unpopular with the unionists; they thought it was too `green'."
Then came Ray Burke. "Since Fianna Fail is, in the eyes of most unionists, the most green of all Irish parties, they were prepared to dislike Burke, but they quickly came to respect him. Blunt and charming, he was a man they could `do business' with. But Burke's tenure was cut short. He resigned from office over a matter unrelated to Northern Ireland and returned to private life."
David Andrews succeeded Burke. "An astute legislator and lawyer, he seemed a safe and reassuring choice. Unfortunately, he got off to a rocky start. In response to a reporter's question he said that the new North-South bodies should have powers `not unlike a government'. That set off alarm bells among the unionists, whose worst fear is precisely that those bodies will be precusors of a united Ireland government. They criticised Andrews and he was forced to back track. But gradually he regained his balance and confidence and, with Liz O'Donnell . . . he had a steadying influence and made a valuable contribution to the process.
"Andrews now handled this tense and difficult situation [unionist demands for renegotiation of the Framework Document] with tact and skill. There were no loud words, no threats, no recrimination."
Andrews, O'Donnell and Dermot Gallagher from the Department of Foreign Affairs did an outstanding job, Mitchell says. "Gallagher developed a good personal and working relationship with several unionist delegates; these relationships would prove to be helpful in the difficult last few weeks of negotiations." There's praise also for civil servants Mar- tin Mansergh and David Donoghue. The book's out on April 1st, published by Heineman.