Originally Posted by Belfast Telegraph
In April 2000, the political row over the IRA's unwillingness to decommission its weapons was dominating the political news during that visit to Dublin; so much so that, before Mandela came to lunch, he had met the Sinn Fein leadership.
"What advice, Mr Mandela, did you offer them," asked the late Aengus Fanning, editor of the Sunday Independent, another guest at lunch.
Mandela did not answer the question directly, but instead embarked on a long explanation of the position in which he found himself in South Africa on the same issue.
He outlined how he faced a wide spectrum of factions within the African National Congress, ranging from liberals, who said all guns should be handed over swiftly, to the mainstream, who felt they should be kept and that such a compromise could not be contemplated so soon.
Fanning repeated the question more pointedly: "But what was your position, Mr Mandela, on decommissioning weapons? And what advice would you give Gerry Adams?" Mandela's mood turned suddenly steely. He looked seriously and sternly at Fanning. "My position, my position... my position is that you don't hand over your weapons until you get what you want... "
The editors around the table were stopped in their tracks. Here was the other Mandela, unflinchingly gritty, never to be taken lightly, who commanded the respect of a huge revolutionary force inside and outside his prison cell.
That evening, I travelled back to Belfast and to the Culloden Hotel, where the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards were taking place. I arrived late off the evening Enterprise train and took my seat apologetically beside the then Secretary of State, Peter Mandelson, who was anxious to know what Mandela had said about Northern Ireland.
Mandelson was visibly shocked when I suggested Mandela did not share the unionists', or British, view on IRA decommissioning and that he thought David Trimble needed to show more political confidence and courage, because he had so much support from London. Mandelson was clearly annoyed at the prospect of such an influential global figure as Nelson Mandela showing sympathy for Sinn Fein and the IRA's position on decommissioning.
