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There is a sentence in Jonathan Powell's talking to terrorists

how to end armed conflicts

that raises intriguing questions about how the Northern Ireland peace process got underway.

Martin McGuinness, Powell, writes, still denies sending the message stating that

our war is over, which started the correspondence with John Major,

and it's pretty clear in retrospect that one of the intermediaries in the chain between the government and the IRA

did in fact embellish the message. The peace process, Tony Blair's former chief of staff is suggesting,

began with an exaggeration, or what others might call a falsehood. It is a remarkable story.

The exact wording of the message Major received in Downing Street on the 22nd of February 1993 was, The Conflict is Over, but we need your

British advice on how to bring it to a close. It came, Major was told, from Martin McGuinness.

McGuinness's precise status in 1993 was contested, but the British took him to be someone who could

speak for the IRA. The message had a long backstory, much of it chronicled three years ago by the leading journalist of the

troubles Peter Taylor in talking to terrorists. Yes, Jonathan Powell lifted someone else's title.

There had been intermittent contact between the British government and the IRA throughout the

troubles. Having explored a number of channels of communication, the British settled on

a dairy businessman, Brendan Duddy, as their middleman. Supported by Dennis Bradley, a former priest

who'd officiated at McGillis' wedding, and Noel Gallagher, another Northern Irish businessman

with good links to Sinn Féin, Duddy established

what became known as the link, a back channel through which the British government and the IRA

passed messages. It was first used in the run-up to the IRA ceasefire of 1975 and was revived

in 1980 for negotiations aimed at getting the hunger strikes

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