Hillsborough Castle - Political Talks

Political Talks

Many of the crucial talks leading up to the signing of the Belfast Agreement took place in the secretariat attached to the Castle. Leaders such as Gerry Adams (Sinn Féin), John Hume (Social Democratic and Labour Party), David Trimble (Ulster Unionist Party) and, on occasion, The Rev. Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party) met Secretaries of State to discuss sensitive political and constitutional issues. It was also used in January 2010 for talks between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen and representatives of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin over the crisis over Northern Irish policing which threatened to derail the Northern Irish government.

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