Léitheoir: 'The Traveller’s Tale' by Ray Bassett reviewed

It is often a great challenge for a reviewer working within a short word allocation to give an adequate account of a book’s admirable and comprehensive contents. It calls to mind the lament made a few centuries ago by Blaise Pascal to a correspondent: ‘I have made this letter longer than usual because I don’t have time to write a short one.’

Several esteemed and experienced political commentators have recently argued that, after twenty-five years of fractious devolved government in the north of Ireland, it is time to accept that ‘Stormont has failed.’

Towards the end of his timely and valuable book, The Traveller’s Tale, Ray Bassett declares that the Good Friday Agreement, which formed the basis for the current Stormont-based government, should not be seen as a singular event or indeed as a final settlement to the divisions in the north of Ireland but should be considered instead to be a milestone in a long continuum.

The process of change in the North has been ongoing since the 1960s and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, coupled with the election of a Labour government at Westminster under Harold Wilson, many years of armed conflict, the fiercely rejected Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, and great efforts to achieve peace which culminated in the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The book provides a fascinating and significant account of the long and arduous road that led to the relative stability and absence of violence now experienced in the North, and more importantly, perhaps, embodies a model for negotiating further progress.

It is not a dry and academic work of history as much as much as a personal account of one participant’s personal experience of events of great historical importance; and it is important to remember that the ‘facts’ of history are always refracted through the mind of the recorder.

The Traveller’s Tale as told by Ray Bassett presents a welcome change from many works written by politicians dealing with ‘The troubles’ which have often been egocentric narratives devoid of serious analysis but replete with self-aggrandisement. Bassett’s authorial style is modest and self-effacing, yet astute, well organised and well-informed, which perhaps one might expect from a successful career diplomat.

Bassett worked as a civil servant in the Irish government’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and was assigned to the Anglo-Irish Division which was created to deal with The Troubles in Northern Ireland, and to engage in relevant relations with London and Washington. He was based in Maryfield, Belfast, and the work of his team reflected the high priority placed by the Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, on bringing about peace and reconciliation in the North.

The ‘travellers’ referred to in the title were a group set up within the Anglo-Irish division and tasked with making contacts as widely as possible and collecting information in the six counties.

They would write up reports on what contacts had shared with them, and make them available to DFA and ministers, thus providing a very useful source of information and knowledge for Irish representatives in negotiations about the peace process with their British government counterparts.

It enabled senior members of the Irish government to be knowledgeable about conditions in the North. Bassett was patient, low-profile and had the ability to engender trust across a wide range of participants from all sides.

Bassett describes the Traveller system as an essential building block in developing the necessary trust in the Irish government among large sections of the community in the north of Ireland.

The book testifies persuasively that the Irish governments led by Reynolds and Ahern, with the support of the DFA, were very invested in establishing stability and reconciliation, and asserts that a courageous and wise departure from traditional ‘groupthink’ facilitated a successful approach to peacebuilding.

Bassett emphasises throughout the importance and effectiveness of building relationships with all parties to the conflict, and of courteous dialogue rather than confrontation as an essential prerequisite for achieving mutual understanding and trust. He strongly criticises the policy followed in the Republic as well as the UK of not talking to Republicans, which he describes as the inevitable cause of repeated failures to reach a settlement.

He presents a fascinating and absorbing account of the negotiations leading up to the Good Friday Agreement, with all the twists and turns and obstacles to be negotiated before the historic settlement was reached, and he gives a lively account of the characteristics, concerns, dilemmas and indeed foibles of the various political figures involved.

Equally fascinating is Bassett’s account of how the Irish government, with his shrewd and energetic assistance, dealt with what he describes , with tongue in cheek, as the ‘left-over’ bits such as the highly controversial and contentious matters of decommissioning of arms and policing. Bassett records the very complex stages and problems of these issues with objectivity and clarity.

The Traveller’s Tale is a valuable and first-hand account of an extremely important chapter in recent Irish history set out in a very informative and accessible manner, and must be highly recommended as a Christmas present for anyone with an interest in how we arrived at our current local political condition, and how we might approach the task of making further progress.

‘The Traveller’s Tale’ by Ray Bassett is published by Grangeland Ventures Ltd and costs £15.00.