Video interviews with Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein, and Dick Spring, former Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, for ITN on 17 January 1996. With the IRA refusing to adhere to the British and Irish government’s Joint Communiqué on parallel progress on paramilitary decommissioning and all-party talks, it was uncertain if Sinn Fein would be part of any such negotiations. However, on this date preparatory talks took place in Belfast to explore the possibility of Sinn Fein inclusion. Adams and Spring discuss the potential for all-party talks in February. Seven days later the Mitchell Report was published while the IRA ended its military ceasefire and carried out the Docklands bombing on 9 February.
Date of Release/Broadcast: 17 January 1996
Name of First Interviewee: Gerry Adams
Name of Second Interviewee: Dick Spring
Role at time of Interview: Joe Hendron (SDLP MP for Belfast West), Gearoid O’Caireallain (journalist)
Purpose: News
Media: Audiovisual
Copyright: ©2013 ITN All rights reserved
Link: Watch the video
Programme/Book/Article: ITN
Time Period covered: 1996
Key Individuals: Gerry Adams, Dick Spring, John Major, Patrick Mayhew, George Mitchell
Key Words: Stormont talks, Sinn Fein, British government, Irish government, decommissioning