before any visit was made, triggering a whole new scenario. The ICJP next day railed against the British government for its unpardonable complacency and indicted its utterly callous conduct. That indictment remains. Four years ago -- when I reviewed Blanketmen [by Richard O'Rawe] -- I asked that a sane debate take place on its principal assertions, instead of the vilification of its author. I also suggested that were the Mountain Climber, the British and the republican leadership to spell out what they knew, it would be possible to reach informed conclusions. The British, via the Freedom of Information Act, have now put new material into the public domain. Mountain Climber has now stated that he passed the British offer to his IRA interlocutor. In what form did the offer come? Was British secretary of state [Humphrey] Atkins able to sign off if he got an affirmative reply from the IRA? It now appears he was. Did those in the republican leadership understand that? Parallel Republican writing that Margaret Thatcher wished a settlement suggests they did. This exchange was at least a day before the hunger strikers were told to demand, via the ICJP, verification from the British authorities. If the IRA had the British offer, why were the hunger strikers being put through a ritual? The hunger strikers, on the instruction of the IRA, were demanding that the ICJP deliver the British to deliver an offer statement. And the British, whilst agreeing to deliver the statement, apparently were waiting on