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- WORLD, Page 45World NotesNORTHERN IRELANDBreakdown in Communications
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- An 18-month effort to bring stability to Northern Ireland
- ended abruptly last week as talks among political leaders of the
- province's majority Protestant and minority Catholic communities
- collapsed. Negotiations had barely begun when the leaders fell
- out over procedural issues, such as where meetings would be held
- and who would act as chairman.
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- The final straw came when the Protestant unionists vowed
- to walk out unless British Secretary of State for Northern
- Ireland Peter Brooke, who initiated the peace plan, canceled a
- July 16 meeting with the Irish Foreign Minister that is part of
- a 1985 accord giving Dublin a role in running Northern Ireland.
- The unionists oppose the Republic of Ireland's participation,
- and to avoid a showdown, Brooke called off the peace talks. As
- the province entered the volatile summer season of Protestant
- parades, there seemed little hope of salvaging Brooke's plan.
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