Trimble dismisses Ahern clash claim as 'tittle-tattle'
Lord Trimble has hit back at claims that Bertie Ahern "came within an ace" of hitting him during Good Friday Agreement negotiations.
The allegations have been made by Jonathan Powell, a former aide to Tony Blair, in his soon-to-be-published diaries.
In an extract in the Sunday Times Review yesterday Mr Powell said: “The Irish dug their heels in and David Trimble came across as appallingly rude to Bertie Ahern, who came within an ace of hitting him.”
But Lord Trimble last night hit back at Mr Powell, saying his book was characterised by “gossip” and “tittle-tattle”.
Lord Trimble added that he was unaware of the quote for which, he noted, Mr Powell was the source.
The former UUP leader claimed the incident in question occurred after some “totally unacceptable behaviour” from the Irish delegation.
Both sides had concluded highly detailed negotiations on north-south bodies and produced an annex of potential areas of cooperation which was to be worked on by the Northern Ireland Assembly, he explained.
“But on the Friday morning I was awoken by a ’phone call to say there was an emergency and that this annex was going into the Agreement with two added areas for cooperation,” said Lord Trimble.
“This resulted from a discussion in the bar in the small hours which I was told was with a junior research worker from our party.”
He did not think Ken Maginnis had been present, as Powell claimed, but even if he was, Lord Trimble said it was still unacceptable behaviour from the Irish delegation to say it constituted new agreement.
“How serious discussions between leaders on these matters could be taken and rewritten based on such flimsy grounds, I don’t know,” he said.
Lord Trimble recalled that he allowed no debate on the matter and simply went to the Irish delegation and struck out the two areas concerned on their papers, without discussion. “It was blunt, but it did its purpose,” he said.
“Powell’s book is full of gossiping and a lot of tittle-tattle. It has quotes attributed to people who were getting excited from time to time and as such Powell is letting himself down.”
Mr Powell said Lord Trimble “could be intensely irritating”, with a short temper, but politically brave. He found the UUP leader hard not to like.
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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