Wednesday 1 November

Following the decision by David Trimble to ban Sinn Féin from cross-border ministerial meetings because of the lack of progress in IRA decommissioning, the Republic’s Minister for Health and Children, Mícheal Martin, and the North’s Minister for Health, Social Security and Public Safety, Bairbre de Brún, decide to have a bilateral meeting in Enniskillen on Friday 3 November “out of the formal framework of the North-South Ministerial Council.” While Mr Trimble rejects Sinn Féin and SDLP demands for an emergency meeting of the Executive — a decision which is bound to heighten nationalist and republican anger over his sanctions — the North’s Deputy First Minister, Séamus Mallon, says he will also attend the Enniskillen meeting. [The North-South Ministerial Council is one of the political structures set up under the Good Friday Agreement and is particularly important to nationalists. The Council and six cross-border bodies are aimed at promoting co-operation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on areas of common concern.]
An RUC police officer has a leg amputated after a device explodes at the gate of Castlewellan RUC station in Co. Down at around 3.00 am. The Real IRA is blamed for the bombing, which is universally condemned by all politicians both in the North and the Republic.
Returning from a conference on devolution in Spain, the North’s First Minister appeals for calm following the escalation of violence in the ongoing loyalist feud.
A 26-year-old member of the UVF, Mark Quayle, is shot dead by the UDA in his flat on the Rathcoole Estate in Newtownabbey on the outskirts of north Belfast at around 6.30 pm.

Thursday 2 November

The two independent arms inspectors, the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari and Cyril Ramaphosa, the one-time general secretary of the African National Congress, hold meetings with pro-Agreement parties in Belfast. Responding to suggestions that the weapons contained in the IRA dumps they have reinspected are “obsolete,” they confirm that they are both “useable” and “secure.” 
A former member of the PUP in his thirties is seriously ill after a shooting in a shop on the Oldpark Road area of north Belfast shortly before midday. 
The Secretary of State calls on David Trimble to lift the ban on Sinn Féin ministers attending meetings of the North-South Council and on the IRA to reengage with the IIDC. He also calls for an immediate end to to the ongoing loyalist feud.
Speaking in Dublin, the RUC Commissioner, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, describes the continuing loyalist feud as “absolute, wanton thuggery and brutality.” He goes on to say that because it is a societal rather than a security problem, the RUC needs the help of influential people like elected and community representatives to bring “this barbarity to an end.”

Friday 3 November

The Deputy First Minister, Séamus Mallon, accompanies the Minister for Health, Bairbre de Brùn of Sinn Féin to the Enniskillen meeting with the Republic’s Minister for Health in defiance of the First Minister’s sanctions. S. Mallon, who says he is attending the meeting to “protect the integrity and operation of the power-sharing executive”, urges the Secretary of State to intervene before “the impasse we are in goes any further.” He also attacks Mr Trimble for “vetoing” a special meeting of the Stormont Executive to consider the ban. 
The chairman of Sinn Féin, Mitchel McLaughlin, announces that the party is considering mounting a legal action against the sanctions imposed by David Trimble excluding its ministers from attending North-South ministerial meetings. 
The Police Ombudsman’s office opens in the North. It will investigate complaints against the RUC, a function currently carried out by the RUC itself and overseen by a commission. The new Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, says that her office will be completely independent.
It transpires that the RUC officer who lost a leg, a finger and a thumb in the Castlewellan bomb attack on Wednesday was injured by an explosive device of a type previously used by loyalist paramilitaries. His condition is still described as critical.
Speaking in Dublin after a meeting with the Taoiseach, the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, says the Sinn Féin leadership has been given the go-ahead to make a legal challenge against the Ulster Unionists’ ban on Sinn Féin ministers attending cross-border Ministerial Council meetings. He goes on to say, however, that the action is being deferred pending discussions with the British Government. 
Speaking in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, where he is attending a meeting [outside the auspices of the North-South Ministerial Council] with the North’s Health Minister, Bairbre de Brún, and her Irish counterpart, Micheal Martin, Séamus Mallon, the Deputy First Minister, says he understands David Trimble’s problems but cannot condone breaking the Good Friday Agreement by refusing to nominate Sinn Féin ministers. He urges the two governments to find a way out of the crisis looming over the peace process as soon as possible. 
For his part, the Republic’s Health Minister says it would have been sending out the wrong signals if he had not attended the meeting and that he expects to continue with progress made in cross border co-operation on a range of health issues.

Saturday 4 November

Speaking to reporters in west Belfast, Gerry Adams says that he thinks David Trimble “made a tactical mistake” but that [he is] “still prepared to believe he wants this process to work.” He maintains that the Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Mandelson, has the authority under the Good Friday Agreement to overrule the ministerial ban. “The onus is on the two governments to uphold and defend the process. If that doesn't happen, then we are going to go to court.” He announces that he will be travelling to London on Tuesday 7 Nov. to discuss the issue and also to urge the British Government to implement the Patten report on policing. 
In a BBC radio interview, David Trimble concedes that the tactic of barring Sinn Féin ministers from attending North-South Ministerial Council meetings may not work, i.e. may not force the IRA to decommission, but that it was his only option to try and persuade the republican paramilitary organisation to re-engage with the IIDC. 
The Sinn Féin Education Minister, Martin McGuinness, one of the two ministers targeted by the ban, who is due to attend a North-South ministerial meeting in the Irish Republic in three weeks’ time, warns that Mr Trimble's high-risk strategy could bring about the “mother of all crises.”
Meanwhile, the Deputy First Minister, Séamus Mallon, suggests the Northern Secretary can overrule the Ulster Unionist veto on Sinn Féin ministers attending North-South Ministerial Council meetings. 
Several hundred mourners attend the funeral in north Belfast of Tommie English, who was shot dead on 31 October as part of the continuing loyalist paramilitary feud.

Sunday 5 November 

The deputy leader of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party and Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, Séamus Mallon, says the First Minister's sanctions breach the ministerial code of conduct and the Good Friday Agreement as well as the Stormont Executive’s recently announced programme for government. 

Monday 6 November

David Trimble and Gerry Adams have a private meeting in Stormont over Ulster Unionist sanctions against republican ministers.
The First Minister and the Deputy First Minister present a united front when the Northern Ireland Assembly resumes after a brief autumn recess. 
The UVF man, Mark Quail, and the PUP man, Bertie Rice, are given paramilitary-style funerals in the morning and afternoon respectively.
Speaking at a constituency meeting in Bangor, David Trimble calls on Jeffrey Donaldson and other UUP dissidents to abide by the decision of the Ulster Unionist Council to place sanctions on Sinn Féin in return for progress on decommissioning. He warns them that those who continue to oppose UUP policy on the matter will have to consider their future in the party.
The British Government announces an £11m compensation package for the widows of RUC members killed by paramilitaries before 1982. 
The former SDLP leader, Gerry Fitt, (Lord Fitt) supports a motion tabled by Unionists and the Conservative party in the British House of Lords to retain the RUC name in the new title of the police service. The motion is rejected by a margin of 99 votes.

Tuesday 7 November

Speaking outside 10 Downing Street before his meeting with Tony Blair, Gerry Adams says that with other North-South Ministerial Council meetings coming up, “the situation in Northern Ireland could become untenable in a short period of time.” He accuses David Trimble of not just disenfranchising the electorate, but also of seeking changes in the IIDC and a moratorium on policing. He warns that if the current problems are not sorted out before the end of the year, the preace process will be “in a serial crisis.” 
The First Minister, David Trimble, and his deputy, Séamus Mallon, help local schoolchildren as they unveil a sculpture of reconciliation in the grounds of Stormont Castle.
Speaking in Lisburn, Co. Antrim, the Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson, says that he does not have the power to force David Trimble to lift his ban. He adds that because the peace process is a voluntary one, it needs everyone involved to work together. 

Wednesday 8 November

David Trimble meets Tony Blair in the House of Commons.
The Continuity IRA claims responsibility for the recent bomb attack on Castlewellan RUC station in which a police officer lost a leg.
Answering questions in the Commons, the Northern Ireland Secretary says the British Government will never give up on the Good Friday Agreement by resisting the demands of hardliners “that exist on both sides.” 
The Sinn Féin chairman, Mitchel McLauglin, says the UUP’s srategy is intended to topple the Assembly by disrupting the Northern Ireland institutions and throw the blame on republicans. He accuses David Trimble of trying to scupper police reform and usurping the independence of General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body by setting deadlines for disarmament. He adds that only the British Government can avert the collapse of the Good Friday Agreement that this would inevitably entail.
The leaders of the rival loyalist paramilitary groups, the UVF and UDA, hold talks in Belfast in a bid to end the recent spate of tit-for-tat killings in which seven men have lost their lives. 
Sinn Féin confirms that they have applied for a judicial review of the Northern Secretary's regulations about flying the Union flag on Government buildings on designated days. 
The House of Lords rejects a Unionist and Conservative amendment to the Northern Ireland Policing bill which would have provided for the retention of the RUC title in use at all times. 

Thursday 9 November

Speaking before the first meeting of the Stormont Cabinet since the Ulster Unionists decided to ban Sinn Féin ministers from attending cross-Border body meetings with the Irish Government, Martin McGuinness says: “It is very clear to us that David Trimble's approach has jeopardised the institutions, put the institutions at risk because as we all know the institutions are inter-dependent. I clearly see the decisions he has taken as a very clear breach of the Good Friday Agreement, of the Act which set up these institutions and the ministerial code.”
A cabinet statement issued after the meeting says there was a “comprehensive exchange of views” on the question of nominations to meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council but gives no indication of any progress on the issue.

Friday 10 November

A Canadian judge, Mr Justice William Arthur Esson, a member of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, is appointed a reserve member of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry. Justice Esson, who will attend all inquiry hearings and meetings of the Tribunal but will not contribute to the private deliberations of the Inquiry, will provide immediate cover and continuity if a member of the Tribunal had to stand down at some point in the future. 
The RUC foil a dissident republicans’ bomb attack when they seize a mortar bomb in the vicinity of Teemore in Co. Fermanagh.
A new Department of Health report reveals that the North has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the EU. The Minister of Health, Bairbre de Brún, promises that the report’s recommendations, which include sexual health promotion for teenage boys, encouragement for pregnant teenagers to remain within the education system and readily available local information healthcare, will be implemented immediately.

Saturday 11 November

Arguing that the IRA will not surrender its weapons, the Ulster Unionist Party deputy leader, John Taylor, warns that the North’s devolved government could be put on hold again and that any suspension could last for months, as all parties would be focusing on the next Westminster general election. Gerry Adams retorts that the power-sharing executive would not recover from a second suspension.
Following the discovery of a mortar bomb and the arrest of four men  in Co. Fermanagh, the UUP MP Ken Maginnis calls on the Irish and British Governments to “meet their obligations to security by taking draconian action” to thwart republican dissidents.
 

Sunday 12 November

Remembrance Sunday services are held in many towns and villages across Northern Ireland, although attended mainly by unionists.  The Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson, uses his new powers to ensure that the Union Flag is flown over the Departments of Education and Health against the wishes of the responsible Sinn Féin ministers. It later emerges that Sinn Féin is to mount a legal challenge to the flying of the British flag at the Education departmental headquarters near Bangor in the face of objections of Martin McGuinness.
An Apprentice Boys Parade passes off peacefully on the Lower Ormeau Road as the marchers do not try to challenge the ban imposed on it and nationalists do not stage any protests.
The RUC intercepts a vehicle, near Derrylin, Co. Fermanagh, which is found to be carrying a mortar bomb and launching tube. Four men are arrested after shots are exchanged. It is thought that dissident republicans were planning an attack, probably on an RUC station, to coincide with Armistice Day.  Ken Maginnis of the UUP later commends the Gardai for the part they played in thwarting the attack.

Monday 13 November

The Saville Inquiry  [The Bloody Sunday inquiry] resumes at Derry’s Guildhall following a break of five months and after a delay of two months. It is expected to spend at least another two years investigating the deaths of those killed by British troops in 1972. 
During a Northern Ireland Assembly debate on the programme for government, the Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams, urges the UUP leader to rescind his sanctions against the two Sinn Féin ministers. Accusing the First Minister of operating “an exit strategy” to force another suspension of the Northern Ireland executive, Mr Adams says he wants  “a government of equals.”
The former Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, is named Ireland’s International Person of the Year at the People of the Year Awards in Dublin.
The First Minister tells a party meeting that unionist peers will table an amendment to the Police Bill calling for a moratorium when it gets a third reading in the House of Lords tomorrow. David Trimble says the moratorium [which is one of a package of measures adopted by the UUC on 28 October] will continue until the Secretary of State declares there is no longer any threat of terrorist activity.

Tuesday 14 November

In an article in the Guardian, Professor Clifford Shearing, a University of Toronto criminologist and a member of the Patten Commission, subjects the government’s Police (Northern Ireland) Bill to a line-by-line analysis to prove that it bears little relation to Chris Patten’s original recommendations. Arguing that the Patten Report has “not been cherry picked, it has been gutted,” he writes that the British Government has “dismantled the foundations” of the Commission’s report. Reacting to the Professor’s scathing attack, Peter Mandelson advises the Professor to “live in the real word,” and adds: “There is still a significant terrorist threat from Dissident Republicans. That is why we have to maintain the effectiveness of policing in Northern Ireland and why also people have to maintain their guard and vigilance, especially in the run up to Christmas.” 
The Stormont Department of Trade, Industry and Investment releases figures which show the number of unemployed fell by 2,000 during July, August and September, to an all-time low of 43,000.

Wednesday 15 November

Speaking as a North-South meeting attended by the Republic’s Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, is taking place in Omagh, Gerry Adams says Sinn Féin has decided to mount a legal challenge to the ban on its ministers attending North-South Ministerial Council meetings. He accuses the British Government of being more concerned with its management of Unionism and with pandering to rejectionists within its own system than with the full and proper implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. He adds:  “The reality is that David Trimble is in breach of his obligations under the Good Friday Agreement and Mr Mandelson is refusing to use his authority to defend the Agreement. Sinn Féin is not prepared to tolerate this emasculation of the Agreement by the First Minister nor to acquiesce in the progressive termination of the All-Ireland Ministerial Council.” 
In the Commons, Tony Blair rejects a UUP MP’s call for a moratorium on policing reforms.
The controversial  Policing Bill passes the House of Lords. Unionist and Conservative amendments to the cap, badge and flag changes and so-called 50/50 recruitment of Catholics and Protestants are narrowly defeated.
British Army bomb experts defuse two pipe bombs at Gray's Lane in north Belfast.

Thursday 16 November

Solicitors acting for the Stormont Health Department and Minister Bairbre de Brún begin unilateral legal proceedings in Belfast’s High Court. The proceedings are aimed at forcing the Stormont First Minister to lift his ban on Sinn Féin ministers attending meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council. Speaking at Stormont, Ms de Brún says: “The First Minister is in breach of his pledge of office, the ministerial code and the Good Friday Agreement.  I have a responsibility to challenge any action which seeks to prevent me from fulfilling my responsibilities as a minister. I fully intend to do so.” The Deputy First Minister, Séamus Mallon, says he fully supports Ms de Brún’s action.

Friday 17 November

Senior members of the UDA, UVF and the smaller Red Hand Commando engage in another round of talks aimed at seeking to end the violence in north and west Belfast. [The loyalist feud has claimed the lives of seven people and forced over two hundred from their homes in the Shankill area of the city.] 
Speaking at a meeting in Limerick of IntertradeIreland, the cross-border trade and business development body set up under the Good Friday Agreement, the Deputy First Minister, Séamus Mallon, says that only 7 percent of the North’s business is done with companies in the South and less than 5% of the South’s business is done with the North. He urges companies and businesses across Ireland to invest more in the North and help improve the North’s economy.
Addressing his party annual conference in Newcastle, Co. Down, the Newry and Armagh MP and Deputy Leader of the SDLP, Seámus Mallon, says it is not too late for the British Government to make its Northern Ireland Policing Bill workable. He also calls on the IRA, the UUP and both the British and Irish Governments to honour their commitments if the peace process is to get out of the current impasse: “No-one can hide from this crisis. Sinn Féin cannot pretend there is not a problem caused by the failure of the IRA to reengage with the de Chastelain Commission. The UUP cannot dismiss the body blow they have struck to the institutions. The two governments — by far the most important players and the guarantors of the deal done at Hillsborough last May — cannot expect the executive and its parties to single-handedly bear and somehow resolve the burden of the present impasse.”

Saturday 18 November

Speaking at the SDLP’s annual conference in Newcastle, Co. Down, its leader, John Hume, says David Trimble was wrong to ban the Sinn Féin ministers from attending North-South Ministerial Council meetings and that he should relax his sanctions. He also says that the IRA are serious about the peace process but urges them to re-engage with the IIDC. He adds that it is now the Real IRA who are the real enemies of the Irish people. 
Addressing his party’s annual conference in Enniskillen, the DUP’s leader, the Rev. Ian Paisley, calls on David Trimble to resign and says that unionists should unite to defeat the Good Friday Agreement and stop the “downgrade to a united Ireland.” The Deputy Leader, Peter Robinson, says the DUP expects to hold its three seats and win five seats currently held by the UUP (including David Trimble’s) at the next Westminster general election. 
Meanwhile at the Women's Coalition’s annual conference in Belfast, the party leader, Monica McWilliams, urges the First Minister and his Deputy to call a meeting of the pro-Agreement parties to tackle the crisis over the implementation of the Patten Report.
At the Republican Sinn Féin annual conference, the leadership launches a scathing attack on the  “Provisional Movement” for its involvement in the peace process.

Monday 20 November

The North's Education Minister, Martin McGuinness, joins his Sinn Féin ministerial colleague, Bairbre de Brún, in seeking a judicial review of the First Minister’s decision withholding their nominations to meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council until the IRA re-engages with the arms decommissioning body.
The Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Lord Alderdice, orders a South Down DUP MLA, Jim Wells, to leave the Assembly for a day for labelling the two Sinn Féin ministers “terrorists in government.”

Tuesday 21 November

The controversial Police (Northern Ireland) Bill, under which the RUC will be renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland, clears the Commons at 10 pm after MPs completed a debate on 140 Lords’ amendments under a five-hour guillotine motion. The legislation mapping out the future shape of policing in the North is expected to be signed into law by Queen Elizabeth by the end of this month, but it is up to the British Government to decide when the controversial changes are actually implemented. While Séamus Mallon, the North’s Deputy First Minister, calls for greater clarity if his party (the SDLP) is to encourage Catholics to join the new service, the Sinn Féin chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin, says his party will not be calling on nationalists to join the police service as defined under the new Act.

Wednesday 22 November

The High Court in Belfast agrees to examine the legality of the sanctions imposed by the First Minister David Trimble on the Sinn Féin Ministers. The Stormont Minister for Education, Martin McGuinness, and the Stormont Minister for Health, Bairbre de Brún, are granted leave to seek a judicial review of the sanctions by  Lord Justice Kerr. The judge will review the case on Tuesday 28 November, when he will determine whether or not it should proceed and, if so, set a date for the full hearing. As a result, the North-South Ministerial Council during which M. McGuinness was to have met his Republic of Ireland counterpart, Dr Michael Woods, on Friday 24 November is cancelled. 
In a speech in London, the chairman of the North’s Police Federation, Les Rodgers, claims the political debate over the Patten report has led to a dramatic slide in morale among RUC officers.
Speaking in Dublin, Gerry Adams describes the Police (Northern Ireland) Act as a “wasted opportunity.” “I think that the British have missed a hugely important opportunity to deal with one issue which you have heard many many times described as a touchstone issue.”
As it is announced that the first advertisements for recruits to the Northern Ireland Police Service will be published in April 2001, Seámus Mallon, the SDLP Deputy First Minister, again calls for greater clarity if his party is to encourage Catholics to join the new service.

Thursday 23 November

The British Government’s legislation for reforming the RUC receives the Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II. Under the Police (Northern Ireland) Act, the RUC will be replaced by the Police Service for Northern Ireland but the RUC’s name will be incorporated in the title deeds. While Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly claims the plan creates a police force akin to a secret society, the Police Authority, which is to be replaced by a Police Board, welcomes the changes contained in the final version of the legislation. 
Speaking in the Seanad, the upper house of the Oireachtas [the Irish parliament], the Irish Foreign Minister, Brian Cowen, describes the sanctions barring Sinn Féin ministers from attending cross border meetings as “disappointing and misconceived” as he is convinced that decommissioning will not be achieved through this latest UUP tactic. He adds, however, that republicans should recognise there is a deficit in unionist confidence which needs to be addressed: “The IRA promised re-engagement with de Chastelain. That did take place albeit in a limited way.  It also promised that the IRA would enter into discussions with the Commission on the basis of the IRA leadership’s commitment to resolving the issue of arms. We now need to see that level of truly meaningful engagement taking place.” 
Addressing the American Chamber of Commerce in Dublin, the Stormont Deputy First Minister, Séamus Mallon, claims that a third and final visit to Northern Ireland by the US President, Bill Clinton, would help the beleaguered peace process. [President Clinton has visited Northern Ireland twice — in 1995, before the breakdown of the first IRA ceasefire and in 1998, in the aftermath of the Omagh bomb.]
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, discusses the latest developments in the peace process with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, as they travel together to the Balkan summit in Zagreb, the Croatian capital.
In a letter to the Irish News, Mgr Dennis Faul, the community activist, writes that nobody got everything they wanted from the Patten Commission. He urges Catholics to join the new Police Service to ensure the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights are available to both sides of the community.

Friday 24 November

Speaking in Zagreb, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, says he cannot recommend that nationalists should join the new Police Service of Northern Ireland as planned at present and that it is too early for the SDLP and Sinn Féin to nominate members of the new Policing Board. Praising the performance of the new Northern institutions, Bertie Ahern goes on to say it is essential that Sinn Féin ministers should be allowed to take part in North-South Ministerial Council meetings. “The North-South dimension is absolutely fundamental to the structures and that’s our position. We cannot allow a situation of drift to develop in the North-South dimension.”
Echoing the Taoiseach’s reservations about the recent legislation, Sinn Féin’s deputy leader, Martin McGuinness says that the British government has “gutted” the Patten Report in the Police Act and that the campaign for reforms will continue. “I think this is a battle which is still winnable if nationalist Ireland, republican Ireland, stays firm and makes it absolutely clear to the British Government that we do want a new beginning to policing, we don’t want a tarted up RUC.” 

Monday 27 November

No one is injured in an arson attack on the Orange Hall in Ballyronan, nr Cookstown, Co. Tyrone.
As nationalist politicians remain locked in conflict with the British Government over the issue of police reform and the banning of Sinn Féin members from meetings of the cross-border council, the US presidency announces that President Clinton will make a third visit to Ireland between 12 and 14 December.
The High Court in Belfast quashes a decision taken by the Sinn Féin Minister for Health, Bairbre de Brún, to centralise Belfast's maternity services at the Royal group of hospitals, on the grounds that it was taken in haste.
It emerges that the DUP is trying to frustrate a plan to bring in legislation which would put an end to the ban on betting at horse races on Sundays. The proposed measure has the support of the UUP and nationalist members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Tuesday 28 November

In a carefully balanced article published in the Belfast Telegraph, the former head of the North’s Policing Commission, Chris Patten, calls on Northern Ireland politicians to encourage young people to join the new police force and to nominate Police Board members.

Wednesday 29 November

Speaking in West Belfast, Gerry Adams says that Sinn Féin is unlikely to support the policing organisation that emerges from what he calls the Mandelson Act. He adds: “Everyone needs to be vigilant and guarded against being coaxed or cajoled or pushed into accepting something now which would make it more difficult  to achieve a proper policing service at a later stage.”
As pressure mounts on the Social Democratic and Labour party to support the new police service, Séamus Mallon and Tony Blair hold private discussions at 10 Downing Street. Amid continuing political wrangling over the new Police Act, the Deputy First Minister insists: “If we are going to actually deal once and for all with policing and get it right it is not the fact that Chris Patten may be confident, or that I may be confident.  It's the fact that people on the ground, out in the north of Ireland who may be joining the police service have got to feel confident too.”

Thursday 30 November

Commenting on his meeting last night with the British Prime Minister, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, Séamus Mallon, challenges the British Government to address seven areas of nationalist concern about policing in Northern Ireland.
He demands more detail on what the Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Mandelson, will do if consensus cannot be achieved on the locally appointed Police Board, over the flags and emblems of the new police service, and a guarantee that any symbols will be neutral.
He wants a timeframe for when the RUC Special Branch will be subsumed into the police service under an assistant chief constable, a date for the ending of the RUC full-time reserve and a timetable for the increase of the part-time reserve in areas where there is little or no involvement from the local community in the RUC full-time reserve.
He wants an indication of when the Government will implement the Patten Commission's recommendation for the closure of all terrorist holding centres including Gough Barracks in Armagh.
He calls for more information on the arrangements with the Irish Government for the secondment of members of the Irish police and other forces into the new Police Service of Northern Ireland, covering their role, rank and the amount of officers involved.
He demands inquiries into the murders of the nationalist solicitors Pat Finucane and Robert Hamill despite restrictions on the ability of the Policing Board to carry out retrospective inquiries into the activities of the RUC. [Mr Finucane was gunned down in his north Belfast home in February 1989 by the loyalist Ulster Defence Association amid allegations of security forces’ involvement. Mr Hamill was attacked by a loyalist mob in Portadown town centre in April 1997 and died from his injuries several weeks later. Witnesses have stated that the incident was witnessed by RUC officers who did not intervene.]