DUP MP Sammy Wilson acknowledges private meetings with Sinn Féin

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Member of Parliament, Sammy Wilson, has confirmed his attendance at confidential meetings with Sinn Féin. These meetings occurred during a period when engaging in negotiations with Sinn Féin was contrary to official DUP policy. Mr. Wilson stated he was “never ever asked whether I took part in those meetings or not so I never involved myself in any denial”. Mr. Wilson clarified that although his party’s stance at the time was against participating in negotiations with Sinn Féin, he maintained that these specific gatherings did not amount to negotiations. The Rev Harold Good, a former president of the Methodist Church, recently disclosed in a published book that these discussions were held at his residence. Rev Good further indicated that Martin McGuinness and Jeffrey Donaldson were present at these meetings. During an appearance on the BBC’s Talkback programme, Wilson commented: “I think that anybody who has observed negotiations, not just in Northern Ireland over the years, but it’s always clear that before you come to final part in negotiations both sides try to find out what are the limits, what are the things that people are prepared to accept, what are they prepared to do.” He explained that the objective of these gatherings was “to assess whether there was any real intent on the other side to come to an agreement”. Wilson also asserted that his party had no obligation to apologize for the meetings held with Sinn Féin. He stated: “We made it clear to Sinn Féin we were not prepared to sit in government with them while they were still engaged in paramilitary activity.” The DUP’s official stance has consistently been that it did not engage in direct talks with Sinn Féin until Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams convened at Stormont in March 2007, preceding the establishment of power-sharing between the parties. In response to inquiries regarding the disclosures in the book, the party indicated that certain individual members had accepted invitations to meetings. These meetings were facilitated by third parties, with the aim of determining if enough common ground existed to achieve an agreement. Upon the publication of Rev Good’s book, Sir Reg Empey, the former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, commented that the revelations demonstrated the DUP was “telling lies” at that particular time. Sir Reg Empey elaborated: “We did speak to Sinn Féin, but we spoke to them publicly, in a talks process,” adding, “And we were denounced right, left and centre, and some of the denunciations became physical in certain cases, and you’ve seen the treatment David Trimble and Daphne Trimble got in Upper Bann – pushed around and abused.” Wilson refuted the accusation that the party had acted dishonestly. He asserted: “We weren’t lying to the public, the party had an official position, individuals within the party, and I was one of them, took opportunities where they were to try and get intelligence which you could feed back so that people were in a position to know whether or not there was business to be done.” He reiterated that these meetings served as information-gathering exercises rather than negotiations.