Ireland in the World by Garret FitzGerald

Author:Garret FitzGerald [FitzGerald, Garret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Great Britain, General, Essays
ISBN: 9781909718777
Google: d6AHBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Liberties Press
Published: 2014-06-27T04:15:41+00:00

8

THE ORIGINS AND RATIONALE OF THE ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT OF 1985

On one issue in particular, my views have remained constant throughout my life: that is, the futility of attempting to achieve Irish political unity by force or by constraint, or otherwise than with the free consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland. A logical corollary of this stance has been a concern to develop a constructive dialogue between the Irish State and the unionist community in Northern Ireland, which needs to be linked to a move to create conditions within the Irish State that, economically, socially and culturally, would be attractive rather than repellent to northern unionists.

Such a policy, however, must not be pursued at the expense of the nationalist minority in Northern Ireland. Indeed, the truth is that an improvement in relations with unionists, had this been attempted, could have opened the way to the removal of discrimination against the northern minority by reducing unionist fears, which arose from a sense of being a threatened minority in the island as a whole. Nevertheless, there can be no disguising the fact that, in the pursuit of such a policy, tensions would have arisen from time to time between a proper concern for the right of the nationalist population in Northern Ireland to be free from discrimination, and efforts to improve relations with the unionist community.

In 1968–69, the inability of unionism to react constructively to the civil-rights movement – which involved the nationalist minority seeking, belatedly, to opt into the Northern Ireland system on a basis of equal treatment – created tensions that led to the suspension of devolved government in Northern Ireland in 1972. The aftermath of these events provided an opportunity for the Irish government that took office in 1973 to seek to pursue a constructive relationship with the unionist leadership under Brian Faulkner. This effort, which contributed to the signing of the Sunningdale Agreement, ultimately failed because of the resistance of important elements of unionism to the provisions of that agreement for power-sharing in Northern Ireland and for a new North–South relationship through a Council of Ireland. The experiment collapsed after the Ulster Workers’ Council strike of May 1974.

In the aftermath of those events, the future of Northern Ireland was clouded in uncertainty. The new British Labour government was less than candid with the Irish government about the review it then undertook of its policy on Northern Ireland. This review – as our government then suspected, and as we now know to have been the case – included consideration of a possible withdrawal from Northern Ireland, and the British government sought to mislead the Irish government about their discussions with Sinn Féin in early 1975.

During that year of uncertainty, the Irish government pursued a dual policy of seeking to reassure the nationalist minority while avoiding any specific commitment as to the course of action it would pursue in the event of a British withdrawal, and at the same time seeking to establish a constructive, unofficial relationship

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.