Brendan Duddy obituary: Businessman who played key role in Northern Ireland peace process

Brendan Duddy, who has died aged 80, was a businessman who played a crucial role in the Northern Irish peace process, acting as a secret link between the IRA and the British government for 20 years, from the 1970s until the 1990s. Jonathan Powell, the diplomat who was Tony Blair’s chief adviser on Northern Ireland during the peace process, wrote that “Duddy was a pacifist and a firm believer in dialogue. Referred to as ‘The Contact’, Duddy worked selflessly and at great risk to himself over many years to bring about a peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland.”

That risk was never greater than when a message was sent anonymously to the government in 1993 purporting to be from the IRA suggesting that they were ready to end the armed conflict. The IRA was incensed, and believed Duddy had sent the message. Four members of the Provisional IRA went to his house. “They questioned me for four solid hours,” he recalled. “It was very intense but not abusive. Let me put it this way: if I’d been guilty of anything, I wouldn’t have liked to have been sitting in that room.”

Duddy was born in 1936 in Derry, and in the 1960s he owned a fish and chip shop in the Bogside. He would take hamburger deliveries from a young Martin McGuinness – who, he said, “used to chat up the girls behind the counter and had absolutely no interest in politics.”

His work as a go-between began in 1972 when Derry’s police chief asked him to persuade the IRA to remove their weapons from the Bogside, and he was then approached by MI6 to establish a “back-channel” between the Provisionals and the government. He was instrumental in engineering the IRA ceasefire in 1975-76, and also helped bring about the end of the 1981 hunger strikes.

Then in 1991, he arranged a dinner with his MI6 contact Michael Oatley at the house of a neighbour. At the end of the dinner McGuinness turned up, and they talked for two hours. Duddy saw the evening as a turning point – for the first time, McGuinness wanted an end to the Troubles.

In 2008 Duddy recalled that he had felt his life was in “constant danger” during the Troubles and that his Catholic faith helped him get through it. “You develop ways of coping with the pressure,” he said. “I prayed every day and I still do.”

When the Troubles ended, Duddy served on the Northern Ireland Policing Board and also assisted in negotiations over the marching season. Meanwhile, he built up a string of enterprises, including hotels and a fashion business.

The reputation of Duddy, who is survived by his wife Margo and their four daughters and two sons, spread round the world. When McGuinness visited Colombia in 2014 the country’s President, Juan Manuel Santos, told him that the government had a “back-channel” man during their negotiations with the left-wing revolutionary group, Farc. They nicknamed him “Duddy”.

Brendan Duddy, born 10 June 1936, died 12 May 2017