The Latest Breaking News from Patrick Mayhew

John Major ‘shouted at’ by Irish justice minister in Troubles-era meeting

Minister Padraig Flynn was exercised by a range of security issues.

The Independent UK · Dec 27, 2025

Good Friday Agreement: the early 1990s back-channel between the IRA and British government that made peace possible

In February 1990, in the midst of the Troubles, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness publicly invited the British government to reopen a back-channel used during previous phases of contact with the IRA in the 1970s and during the 1981 hunger strike.

The Conversation · Apr 6, 2023

Operation Chiffon by Peter Taylor review – how they talked their way out of the Troubles

In this compelling account, the author and documentary-maker describes how decades of covert communications between the British government and the IRA eased the path to the Good Friday agreement – helped by an unlikely hero

The Guardian - UK · Apr 2, 2023