The Progressive Unionist Party representative, Mr Billy Hutchinson, gave the first confirmation yesterday that unionists would be engaging in face-to-face talks with Sinn Fein. Emerging from Castle Buildings yesterday, he said unionists were "here to go into plenaries [round-table meetings] and everything else, but we won't be in today". Mr Hutchinson, who served a lengthy jail sentence for UVF-related offences, said the direct talks would probably be within the next week and certainly before the end of the month when the British Labour Party holds its annual conference.
Ulster Unionist Party figures were simultaneously briefing re porters that there would be direct talks before the end of the month. All this occurred within 24 hours of the bombing of the unionist village of Markethill in Co Armagh.
Just before Mr Hutchinson spoke, there was the first visible evidence of the mixing which was beginning to take place inside the Castle Buildings complex.
Just after 12.30 p.m., in the carpark, two Sinn Fein members, Ms Joan O'Connor and Mr Michael Brown, walked past three UUP members, Mr Ken Maginnis, Mr Jack Allen and Mr Jim Wilson. They briefly exchanged pleasantries as they passed. Standing only a few yards away were members of the PUP including Mr Hutchinson, Mr David Ervine and the loyalist paramilitary figurehead, Mr Gusty Spence.
The historic breakthrough at Stormont came just after 10 a.m. when the eight-member UUP delegation, led by Mr David Trimble, arrived at the complex, just minutes after the Sinn Fein delegation had gone inside.
Mr Trimble addressed the media at the gates, saying he was there to defend the Union, not "to negotiate with [Sinn Fein] but to confront them, to expose their fascist character".
He called on the Democratic Unionist Party and the UK Unionist Party to join him in his negotiations. "Those that walk out leave the Union undefended," he said. "The Ulster Unionist Party will ensure that the Union is defended. We will ensure, as we have done this summer, that attempts to dilute the consent principle are defeated.
"With Ulster Unionists at the table, there will be no united Ireland; there will be no joint sovereignty; no joint authority, actual or disguised; the Anglo-Irish diktat and the illegal territorial claim will be under constant attack."
His immediate objective was to seek the expulsion of Sinn Fein on the grounds of last week's rejection of the Mitchell Principles by the IRA and because of Tuesday's bombing in Markethill. He would also be pressing the talks chairman, Senator George Mitchell, to implement decommissioning in parallel with the talks process.
Despite this apparently uncompromising agenda, the arrival of the UUP with the two loyalist parties was enough to prompt the two government representatives to come outside and address the assembled media about the significance of the occasion.
The Northern Secretary of State, Dr Mo Mowlam, paid tribute to the unionists' courage. They had, she said, stuck to their principles by coming into the process to move it forward. Those unionist critics who claimed Mr Trimble had been bombed to the negotiating table "under-estimate the Ulster Unionists. I have spoken to Mr Trimble and his anger over Markethill is palpable and to say he has been bombed to the table is a gross misrepresentation of where the UUP are."
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Burke, also acknowledged the unionists' courage. "It is very important that for the first time, we have all the parties under one roof and really meaningful talks that will bring about peace will get under way."
The arrival of the UUP, Mr Burke said, offered "long-term opportunities rather than the short-term problems that have been created by this bomb, which we all roundly condemn."
The PUP issued a statement saying: "We are cognisant of the mistrust and enmity that exist in our midst but we are convinced that if all the participants in these premises make the `sanctity of the talks' our guiding principle, then progress is possible."
The UDP, which represents the Ulster Defence Association, added: "Negotiation promises to be challenging for all parties but the greatest challenge will be faced by republicans who must learn to conform to the democratic parameters of this process."
Yesterday's plenary session, minus the unionists and loyalists, discussed the procedural motion on decommissioning which, it is hoped, would allow the talks to proceed while the issue of paramilitary weapons is dealt with by a separate committee.