Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 February 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement

Architects of the Good Friday Agreement (Resumed): Ms Liz O'Donnell

Ms Liz O'Donnell:

Mo Mowlam was there. In that sense, as a peace process we were lucky that the two Governments had a woman on the team. It may not have happened otherwise. It was not ordained. Then the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition was involved. All the parties got involved. Bairbre de Brún was there for Sinn Féin, as was Bríd Rodgers. We had plenty of women in the room and I do think it made a difference, even in terms of behaviour. George Mitchell put manners on anybody who was rude to female speakers. The Ulster Unionist Party did not particularly like the Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam. The unionists thought she was very informal and lax. They also thought she was too close to Sinn Féin and the Irish Government. All of that dynamic was necessary. People got to know each other and that is what made a difference.

Women bring a different dimension. They do not get stuck in fixed positions, which is the problem with Northern Ireland. Before the agreement, people were stuck in fixed positions and they were brilliant at articulating their fixed position, but that did not get us anywhere. George Mitchell helped us to move into a space that was not fixed, which encouraged us to open up. He was as tough on the Governments as he was on the participants. He said they could not stick to a position, that they had to move a little bit. He had fantastic mediation skills from mediating disputes in the Senate in the United States as leader. He helped us. He was a masterful chair. We will never stop thanking him for his participation and for chairing the talks, and his role thereafter. He gave four years of his life then and he is still involved and still worries about Northern Ireland, and comes back to visit us.

On the politics of Twitter, I am glad I am not in politics now when I think of what people have to put up with. When I was in politics, from 1992 to 2007, the whole social media thing had not really taken off. I got angry letters in the post but I did not get the vitriol that some Deputies, both male and female, have to endure. I dislike all that stuff. Politics is for considered reflection. It is not for soundbites and quick responses. It is different to be a politician in this world of Twitter and social media.

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