Video interviews with Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Jeffrey Donaldson, UUP MP for Lagan Valley, for ITN on 23 June 1999. The Hillsborough Declaration from the British and Irish governments on 1 April created a framework for progress towards power-sharing government in Northern Ireland and invested the IICD with responsibility for scheduling IRA decommissioning. However, disagreement continued among Northern Ireland political parties over the timing of IRA decommissioning. Blair and Donaldson discuss the importance of paramilitary decommissioning guarantees and implementation.
Date of Release/Broadcast: 23 June 1999
Name of First Interviewee: Tony Blair
Name of Second Interviewee: Jeffrey Donaldson
Role at time of Interview: Tony Blair (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), Jeffrey Donaldson (UUP MP for Lagan Valley)
Purpose: News
Media: Audiovisual
Copyright: ©2013 ITN All rights reserved
Link: Watch the video
Programme/Book/Article: ITN
Time Period covered: 1998-1999
Key Individuals: Tony Blair, Jeffrey Donaldson
Key Words: British government, UUP, IRA, Belfast Agreement, Good Friday Agreement, ceasefire, decommissioning, power-sharing, loyalist paramilitary, de Chastelain questionnaire