SECTION 9

THE ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT 1985

This agreement was said to be a response to the growth of political support for Sinn Fein, and an attempt to bolster up the support base of the SDLP. It was undertaken by Margaret Thatcher, in the aftermath of the Brighton bombing, and by Dr Garret Fitzgerald, leader of Fine Gael and Taoiseach.

The buzzword of this agreement was “equality”. Equality threatens no-one and enhances everyone.

Yet the DUP opposed this agreement along with the Ulster Unionist Party, with Sinn Fein also hostile to it.

Unionists resigned their seats at Westminster, and undertook a “referendum” on this agreement in order to demonstrate that it had no support. They lost a seat to SDLP deputy-leader, Seamus Mallon, in this election, which took place in January 1986.

Dr Garret Fitzgerald was able to persuade the British government of the desirability of an agreement because of the growth in support for Sinn Fein and republican violence.

While it was an act of cowardice on the part of Margaret Thatcher and the British government, still in shock at the Brighton bomb, it was also an attempt by the Irish government to wash its hands of the North. Many people in the Republic of Ireland talked of it being a solution to the problems of the North, as if they would now suddenly disappear.

Within two years the Agreement was no longer worked properly by the two governments, and so the bad faith that was at the core of the signing of this agreement, signed as it was for all the wrong reasons, led to its demise as an effective tool in the North.

The Anglo-Irish Agreement should demonstrate to us that flimsy agreements are of little value in resolving the problems of the North