Bassett’s ‘Did Ye Hear About’ Gasyard talk on… Derry’s key role in the Good Friday Agreeement

Ray Bassett was the Irish government’s longest serving civil servant in the north, spending almost two decades behind the scenes in the years in the run-up to the signing of the Good Friday agreement. 

During that time he made not only a huge number of contacts but also friends across the political and religious divide, not least including loyalist leaders like the late David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson.

However, he recently told the Irish News that of all the people he met during those long years the person he ‘most admired’ was Derry man, Noel Gallagher.

Gallagher was a member of the ‘back-channel’ trio -  which also included locals Denis Bradley and Brendan Duddy – who were the ‘go-betweens’ between the IRA and the British government for many years. 

In his recently published book, The Traveller’s Tale, Bassett presents a highly readable, personal account of what it was like to be engaged in the tireless work that led up to the torturous negotiations that led, eventually, to the ending of violence. 

His is a fascinating story.

Ray Bassett served in the North under four Taoisigh including  John Bruton , Albert Reynolds, Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, and was deeply involved in the negotiations which led to the historic 1998 agreement. 

He disagreed totally with Bruton’s instruction not to engage with Sinn Fein, feeling that it was totally counterproductive in the search for peace.

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He will be talking about that role,  and about his travels all over the North in those two decades, next Tuesday at the Gasyard Centre in Derry as part of  the “Did Ye Hear About? …..Myth-busting  conversations” series.

The event will get underway at 2 pm and Mr. Bassett will sign copies of his book afterwards.