Friday 9 December, Martin McGuinness led a Sinn Fein delegation to Stormont, to meet openly with officials. Unlike Albert Reynolds’ full-frontal performance in Dublin with John Hume and Gerry Adams, there were no politicians present. Sinn Fein was not mainstreamed but tributarised. It was a milestone event and the publicity surrounding it obscured the significance of the British niggling over the economic conference. Subsequently, when the chamber where the meeting took place burned down, it was averred that the blaze was caused, not by a wiring fault, but by the sparks generated by Carson’s
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