The Electronic Telegraph 25 April 1995 FRONT PAGE

The Negotiators

They include Martin McGuinness and Gerard Kelly, who helped to organise the 1983 Maze breakout by 38 prisoners.

Mr McGuinness, 44, has been leading the Sinn Fein delegation in exploratory talks with Government officials. He has been accompanied by several senior members of his party including Kelly and Siobhan O'Hanlon.

Yesterday's announcement raises the possibility that the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, may now join the delegation in a symbolic gesture recognising the new status of the talks.

Sinn Fein said that the team had not yet been finalised and said that Mr Adams would probably join the delegation only "further down the road".

Mr McGuinness, a senior Sinn Fein executive member, jailed in the Irish Republic in 1973 for being an IRA member, was believed to have been chosen to lead the exploratory talks because he would refuse to make commitments on behalf of Sinn Fein which would be unacceptable to the IRA.

A key strategist in Sinn Fein's efforts to win electoral support, he represented Republicans during the secret negotiations with the Government between 1990 and 1993.

Kelly, a convicted IRA bomber, provides one of the party's links with the IRA leadership. He was involved in the secret contacts between the Government and Sinn Fein.

He was jailed for life in 1973 but escaped from the Maze and was recaptured in Amsterdam. But the extradition treaty with Holland did not cover his offences.

Siobhan O'Hanlon, 34, was jailed in 1983 for seven years after she was caught in a Belfast bomb-making factory. She has worked as a personal assistant to Mr Adams and is the party's note-taker at the talks.

Another delegate is likely to be Lucilita Bhreatnach, the party's general secretary.

Sinn Fein deal ends the long deadlock

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