Seamus Mallon

The SDLP's deputy leader and chief negotiator on the strand one talks over the internal institutions, Mallon became the first deputy First Minister alongside Trimble in 1998. His description of the agreement as 'Sunningdale for slow learners', a reference to the failed 1973 power-sharing deal, is one of the sharpest lines of the period. He was a forceful critic of the IRA and, later, of the idea that a 50 per cent plus one vote would be enough for Irish unity.