Mr. Rory Montgomery:

It is important to recall that at the beginning of the talks, Sinn Féin personnel were imprisoned. I cannot remember but I imagine those parties that were present would have made opening statements giving their own historical slant on what had happened. I said I was involved with the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. The forum model should not be totally forgotten about as a way of involving politicians, the public and other interest groups. That is another day's work. At that time, parties certainly did speak and I remember the Sinn Féin representatives. The parties presented their perspectives on the origins and root causes of the conflict. In general, it would have been entirely counterproductive to try to get any kind of agreed narrative on what happened.