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Secret meetings were held between Martin McGuinness and Jeffrey Donaldson when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) had a policy of not speaking to Sinn Féin, according to a former church leader.

The Rev Harold Good, an ex-Methodist Church president, recalled the talks took place in his home in a new book, In Good Time.

Officially, the DUP has always maintained it never sat down with Sinn Féin until Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams met at Stormont in March 2007, shortly before the parties entered power-sharing.

On Thursday, the party said some individual members of the party did accept invites to meetings, facilitated by third parties, to see whether there was sufficient common ground to reach an agreement.

'Concern for the greater good'

Rev Good told ����ý News NI's Talkback: "It’s a story of how two people in particular saw that something had to be done whatever about the reservations of people within their parties.

"And I take my hat off to them," he added.

Outlining how the talks began, he said: "We were talking to people we weren't supposed to be talking to for decades.

"That had to be lifted to another level to try and facilitate an opportunity for people at a level where it had now become crucial."

Asked how he felt when he heard the DUP publicly denying such meetings had taken place, Rev Good replied "that was for them and is for them to answer, not me".

"My concern was for the greater good. And you see we all know that in every conflict, every war there comes a moment when there has to be a huge compromise and people have to step well beyond their comfort zones.

"And these two people were prepared to do that," he added.

Pressed further about the denials he said if the media had got hold of the story "it couldn't have continued".

On the same programme, the former Ulster Unionist Party leader Sir Reg Empey said it showed that at the time the DUP were "telling lies".

"We did speak to Sinn Féin, but we spoke to them publicly, in a talks process," he explained.

"And we were denounced right, left and centre, and some of the denunciations became physical in certain cases, and you've seen the treatment David Trimble and Daphne Trimble got in Upper Bann - pushed around and abused.

"However, we've got to try and maybe see a bit beyond all of that, which is very deeply hurtful to those of us who are involved in it, and to try and look at the bigger picture."

In response, a DUP spokesperson said: “In relation to your media query we have not yet been able to view the publication to which you refer.

"The party has not previously been asked to comment on these meetings as described.

“As we now know broad political agreement was reached in March 2007, subject to faithful delivery, which led to the establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive on 8 May 2007.