The Anglo-Irish Agreement was a 1985 treaty between the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
which aimed to help bring an end to
the Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
.
The treaty gave the
Irish government
The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland.
The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The gover ...
an advisory role in Northern Ireland's government while confirming that there would be no change in the constitutional position of Northern Ireland unless a majority of its citizens agreed to join the Republic. It also set out conditions for the establishment of a
devolved
Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories ...
consensus government in the region.
The Agreement was signed on 15 November 1985, at
Hillsborough Castle
Hillsborough Castle is an official government residence in Northern Ireland. It is the official residence of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, , by British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
and Irish
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the o ...
(prime minister)
Garret FitzGerald.
Background
During her first term as Prime Minister, Thatcher had unsuccessful talks with both
Jack Lynch and
Charles Haughey
Charles James Haughey (; 16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach on three occasions – 1979 to 1981, March to December 1982 and 1987 to 1992. He was also Minister for the Gaeltacht from ...
on solving the conflict in Northern Ireland. In December 1980 Thatcher and Haughey met in Dublin, with the subsequent communiqué calling for joint studies of "possible new institutional links" between Britain, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. Although this resulted in the founding of the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Council in 1981, Anglo-Irish relations had by this time deteriorated due to the
Irish hunger strike and so this body was neglected.
[Campbell, p. 426.] Haughey resumed power shortly afterwards and took Argentina's side during the
Falklands War, leading to the meeting scheduled for July 1982 to be cancelled.
However, the British Northern Irish Secretary,
Jim Prior
James Michael Leathes Prior, Baron Prior, (11 October 1927 – 12 December 2016) was a British Conservative Party politician. A Member of Parliament from 1959 to 1987, he represented the Suffolk constituency of Lowestoft until 1983 and then ...
, proposed "rolling devolution": a step by step approach whereby local government was devolved to an assembly elected by proportional representation. This was boycotted by the nationalist community and the plan was dead by June 1983.
The
IRA
Ira or IRA may refer to:
*Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name
*Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name
*Iran, UNDP code IRA
Law
*Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...
's
campaign
Campaign or The Campaign may refer to:
Types of campaigns
* Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed
*Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme
* Bl ...
on the British mainland was ongoing, with the bombing of
Chelsea Barracks
Chelsea Barracks was a British Army barracks located in the City of Westminster, London, between the districts of Belgravia, Chelsea and Pimlico on Chelsea Bridge Road.
The barracks closed in the late 2000s, and the site is currently being redeve ...
in October 1981, the
Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings
The Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings were carried out on 20 July 1982 in London, England. Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two improvised explosive devices during British military ceremonies in Hyde Park ...
in July 1982 and the
Harrods bombings
The Harrods bombing refers to the car bomb that exploded outside Harrods department store in central London, England, on Saturday 17 December 1983. Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army planted the time bomb and sent a warning 37 ...
in December 1983. Thatcher herself was the target in the
Brighton hotel bombing
A Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassination attempt against members of the British government took place on 12 October 1984 at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, East Sussex, England, United Kingdom. A long-delay time bomb was plan ...
of October 1984. British military intelligence informed Thatcher that she could not take the IRA head on and the likelihood of never-ending violence persuaded her to seek a political solution to the Troubles. The Anglo-Irish Agreement's origins lay in the behind-the-scenes negotiations between the British and Irish foreign offices, co-ordinated by the Cabinet Secretary,
Robert Armstrong, and the secretary to the Irish government, Dermot Nally.
[Campbell, p. 429.]
The
New Ireland Forum
The New Ireland Forum was a forum in 1983–1984 at which Irish nationalist political parties discussed potential political developments that might alleviate the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Forum was established by Garret FitzGerald, then T ...
had been founded (with the backing of then-Taoiseach
Garret FitzGerald) in May 1983 by
John Hume
John Hume (18 January 19373 August 2020) was an Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Ireland, as one of the architects of the Northern Ire ...
in an attempt to undercut support for the IRA by bringing together constitutional nationalist parties from both sides of the border. In June 1983 Thatcher and Fitzgerald met again and revived the Anglo-Irish Council, which met sixteen times between November 1983 and March 1985. The report of the New Ireland Forum was published in May and suggested three possible solutions: a federal united Ireland, a confederal united Ireland or joint sovereignty. Fitzgerald hoped that Thatcher might be persuaded of the third option but at the press conference after their meeting Thatcher publicly proclaimed that all three options were "out". Thatcher's intransigence persuaded the American President,
Ronald Reagan, to intervene.
The most powerful pressure for the Agreement came from the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, where the
Irish-American lobby was second only to the
Israel lobby in influence.
Led by the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Tip O'Neill
Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr. (December 9, 1912 – January 5, 1994) was an American politician who served as the 47th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, representing northern Boston, Massachusetts, as ...
, and Senators
Edward Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
and
Daniel Moynihan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was an American politician, diplomat and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New York in the United States Senate from 1977 until 2001 and served as an ...
, the Irish lobby regularly denounced what they considered British colonialism and human rights violations in Northern Ireland. Reagan, who was also Irish-American and
visited Ireland in June 1984, increasingly encouraged Thatcher to make progress on Anglo-Irish talks.
45 Senators and Congressmen (including O'Neill, Kennedy and Moynihan) wrote to Reagan criticising Thatcher's rejection of the Forum's report. They also pushed him to pressure Thatcher into reconsidering her stance at the upcoming meeting at Camp David in December 1984. Reagan duly discussed Northern Ireland with Thatcher at their meeting, telling her that "making progress is important" and that "there is great Congressional interest in the matter", adding that O'Neill wanted her to be "reasonable and forthcoming".
[Campbell, p. 435.] Afterwards, Reagan assured O'Neill that he had emphasised the need for progress.
Sean Donlon, the Secretary General of the
Department of Foreign Affairs, later claimed that "the intervention by Reagan was vital, and it was made possible by Tip". Michael Lillis, the Deputy Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs from 1983-1985, similarly claimed that "O'Neill was very active and effective in mobilizing the President. And there is no doubt whatsoever that Reagan's regular references to this in his interaction with Thatcher helped us in a major way".
By January 1985, Thatcher was persuaded that progress must be made on the issue. Her primary aim was security but realised that in order for help in this area she would need to concede in other areas, such as grievances over policing and the courts. She also hoped that this would help reconcile the Catholic population to the United Kingdom. She invited John Hume to
Chequers on 16 January to discuss Northern Ireland. She now accepted that an "Irish dimension" was necessary in return for the Irish government's acceptance that Northern Ireland would remain a member of the United Kingdom so long as it had majority support. In April a four-member Cabinet committee had been informed of the negotiations; in October the entire Cabinet was informed. Thatcher and Fitzgerald met again in May at a European summit in which they discussed what became the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Provisions
Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference
The agreement established the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, made up of officials from the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
and Irish governments. This body was concerned with political, legal and security matters in Northern Ireland, as well as "the promotion of cross-border co-operation". It had a consultative role only – no powers to make decisions or change laws were given to it.
The Conference would only have power to make proposals "insofar as those matters are not the responsibility of a devolved administration in Northern Ireland". This provision was intended to encourage the
unionists (who opposed Irish government involvement in Northern Ireland through the Conference) into power-sharing devolved government. The Maryfield Secretariat was the conference's permanent
secretariat
Secretariat may refer to:
* Secretariat (administrative office)
* Secretariat (horse)
Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who is the ninth winner of the Ame ...
, including officials from the Republic's
Department of Foreign Affairs, based in the
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
suburb of Maryfield. The presence of civil servants from the Republic particularly incensed unionists. The Maryfield offices closed in December 1998 after the
British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference
The British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC) is an intergovernmental organisation established by the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom under the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. It first met in London in 1999, and the la ...
superseded the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.
Communiqué
In the communiqué accompanying the agreement, the UK agreed that all
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
patrols in Northern Ireland would have a civilian
Royal Ulster Constabulary escort, save in the most exceptional circumstances. The Irish government made thousands of protests at violations of this undertaking by 1997.
Reaction to the Agreement
Support
The
British House of Commons voted for a motion to approve the Agreement by a majority of 426 (473 for and 47 against, the biggest majority during Thatcher's premiership). Most of the Conservative members voted for it, although there were some unionists in the party who opposed it, as did the
Labour Party, and the
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
-
SDP Alliance. Of the main parties in Northern Ireland, only the nationalist
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...
(SDLP) and the cross community
Alliance Party supported the agreement, although the Alliance Party did not have any seats at Westminster.
The Agreement was approved by
Dáil Éireann, by 88 votes to 75, and by
Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house).
It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...
by 37 votes to 16.
[Anglo-Irish Agreement 1985: Motion (Resumed)](_blank)
Parliamentary Debates, Dáil Éireann - Volume 361 - 21 November 1985 The
Irish nationalist
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...
, at the time the main opposition party in Ireland, also rejected the Agreement. The Fianna Fáil leader,
Charles Haughey
Charles James Haughey (; 16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach on three occasions – 1979 to 1981, March to December 1982 and 1987 to 1992. He was also Minister for the Gaeltacht from ...
, claimed the Agreement was in conflict with
Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland
Article 2 and Article 3 of the Constitution of Ireland ( ga, Bunreacht na hÉireann) were adopted with the Constitution of Ireland as a whole on 29 December 1937, but revised completely by means of the Nineteenth Amendment which became effectiv ...
because it officially recognised British jurisdiction in Northern Ireland. It was also opposed by the Independent Republican
TDs
Neil Blaney
Neil Terence Columba Blaney (1 October 1922 – 8 November 1995) was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1948 as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) representing Donegal East. A high-profile member of the party, Blane ...
and
Tony Gregory
Tony Gregory (5 December 1947 – 2 January 2009) was an Irish independent politician, and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency from 1982 to 2009.
Early life
Gregory was born in Ballybough on Dublin's Northside, the secon ...
,
with Blaney describing the agreement as "a con job". Despite this opposition, all the other main parties in the Republic supported the Agreement, and it was ratified by the Oireachtas.
An opinion poll taken shortly after it was signed found that in the Republic 59% approved of the Agreement, 29% opposed it and 12% had no opinion.
[Owen, p. 40.] FitzGerald's government's approval ratings went up 10% to 34%; 32% approved of Haughey's opposition to the Agreement, with 56% opposed.
Unionist and Loyalist opposition
![Ulster Says No poster](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Ulster_Says_No_poster.svg)
The Agreement was widely rejected by
unionists because it gave the Republic of Ireland government a role in the governance of Northern Ireland for the first time ever, and because they had been excluded from the agreement negotiations. The
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...
(UUP) and
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) led the campaign against the agreement, including mass rallies, strikes,
civil disobedience and the mass
resignation from the British House of Commons
Members of Parliament (MPs) sitting in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom are not permitted to resign their seats. To circumvent this prohibition, MPs who wish to step down are instead appointed to an " office of profit under the Crown", ...
of all the unionist
MPs. The DUP and UUP collectively organised 400,000 signatures in a petition against the Agreement. Northern Ireland Secretary
Tom King was attacked by Protestants in Belfast on 20 November. There was also a mass rally outside
Belfast City Hall
Belfast City Hall ( ga, Halla na Cathrach Bhéal Feirste; Ulster-Scots: ''Bilfawst Citie Haw'') is the civic building of Belfast City Council located in Donegall Square, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It faces North and effectively divides the comm ...
on 23 November 1985 against the Agreement, with Irish historian
Jonathan Bardon
Jonathan Eric Bardon (born in Dublin, 1941 – died in Belfast, 21 April 2020), was an Irish historian and author.
Early life
Bardon was born in Dublin in 1941 and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), in 1963. Shortly thereafter, ...
saying of it: "Nothing like it had been seen since 1912". Estimates of the number of people there vary: ''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
'' claimed 35,000 people were present; the ''
News of the World'', ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'' and the ''
Sunday Express'' claimed 100,000;
[Owen, p. 41.] the lecturer in Politics at the
University of Ulster
sco, Ulstèr Universitie
, image = Ulster University coat of arms.png
, caption =
, motto_lang =
, mottoeng =
, latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae
, established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...
, Arthur Aughey, claimed over 200,000 people were there; and the organisers of the meeting said 500,000 attended.
The DUP leader
Ian Paisley addressed the crowd:
Where do the terrorists operate from? From the Irish Republic! That's where they come from! Where do the terrorists return to for sanctuary? To the Irish Republic! And yet Mrs Thatcher tells us that that Republic must have some say in our Province. We say never, never, never, never!
The day after the rally a
MORI
Mori is a Japanese and Italian surname, and also a Persian pet name for Morteza. It is also the name of two clans in Japan, and one clan in India.
Italian surname
*Barbara Mori, Uruguayan-Mexican actress
* Camilo Mori, Chilean painter
* Cesare ...
opinion poll in Northern Ireland found that 75% of Protestant Unionists would vote 'No' if a referendum was held on the Agreement, with 65% of Catholic Nationalists saying they would vote 'Yes'.
Following the resignation of the unionist members of parliament, who represented fifteen of the seventeen Westminster seats in the province, the
1986 Northern Ireland by-elections
The 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections were fifteen by-elections held on 23 January 1986, to fill vacancies in the Parliament of the United Kingdom caused by the resignation in December 1985 of all sitting Unionist (Ireland), Unionist Member ...
were all held on 23 January 1986, and all the retiring members except one were re-elected, standing on an anti-Agreement platform. The exception was
Newry and Armagh Newry and Armagh can refer to:
* Newry and Armagh (Assembly constituency)
*Newry and Armagh (UK Parliament constituency)
Newry and Armagh is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Mickey Brady o ...
, which in a close contest was gained by the pro-Agreement SDLP.
On 3 March 1986 there was a general strike, or 'Day of Action', in Northern Ireland, in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. There was widespread disruption as workplaces closed. Public transport including air travel was also affected. There was significant genuine Protestant support for the strike but there was also a high level of intimidation with masked Loyalists establishing barricades. In Portadown mobs attacked Catholic homes and a section of the motorway near Belfast way closed after nails and oil were strewn across the road.
Vandalism and clashes with police broke out following a Unionist rally held at Belfast City Hall.
There were riots in Loyalist areas during the evening and night and shots were fired at the
Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Later RUC figures stated that there had been 237 reported cases of intimidation, 57 people arrested, and 47 RUC officers injured. The British government and the security forces were later criticised for not keeping arterial routes open and for not trying to end the intimidation.
Alliance Party politician
Seamus Close
Seamus Anthony Close OBE (12 August 1947 – 7 May 2019) was a Northern Irish politician, member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Lagan Valley and a deputy leader of the Alliance Party.
In August 1981, he was the Alliance candidate for ...
, whose family had been a victim of intimidation, criticised UUP leader Jim Molyneaux for downplaying reports of intimidation. DUP Chief Whip
Jim Allister
James Hugh Allister (born 2 April 1953) is a British Unionist politician and barrister in Northern Ireland. He founded the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) political party in 2007, leading the party since its formation.
Allister has served ...
denied roadside pickets which surrounded motorists amounted to intimidation.
The willingness of the RUC to police anti-Agreement protests shocked many staunch unionists and loyalists, who were enraged that the RUC was upholding a political decision at odds with the wishes of Northern Ireland's unionist majority. Despite intensely violent loyalist protests in the year following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement the RUC held the line, at the cost of a sharp deterioration in relations with the unionist community. In 1986 there were over 500 attacks on the homes of RUC officers as well as intimidation of their families and 120 families were forced to move. That the RUC upheld the law rather than the interests of unionists did "a great deal to enhance the RUC's reputation for professionalism". Attacks on RUC officers homes had already started in the summer of 1985 with unionist resentment exacerbated by the RUC rerouting
Orange Order and other
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
fraternal societies
A fraternity or fraternal organization is an organized society of men associated together in an environment of companionship and brotherhood; dedicated to the intellectual, physical, and social development of its members.
Service clubs, lineage ...
away from Catholic areas in 1985 and 1986.
The parades were perceived as triumphalist by Catholic residents and often led to vandalism and violence.
Ian Paisley declared that it was time for the RUC to declare whether it was for Northern Ireland or against it. Hardline unionists saw the RUC's willingness to defend Catholics as another sign that Protestants' position was eroding.
[Stacey K. McGoldrick, Andrea McArdle, ''Uniform Behavior: Police Localism and National Politics'' (Springer, 2006), p. 110.]
The UUP MP
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
asked Thatcher in the Commons the day before she signed the Agreement: "Does the Right Hon. Lady understand—if she does not yet understand she soon will—that the penalty for treachery is to fall into public contempt?" The UUP leader
James Molyneaux
James Henry Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, KBE, PC (27 August 1920 – 9 March 2015) was a Northern Irish unionist politician who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1979 to 1995, and as the Member of Parliament ...
spoke of "the stench of hypocrisy, deceit and treachery" and later said of "universal cold fury" at the Agreement such as he had not experienced in forty years of public life. Ian Paisley, a few days later to his congregation, compared Thatcher to "
who sought to destroy Israel in a day".
[Owen, p. 38.] He wrote to Thatcher: "Having failed to defeat the IRA you now have capitulated and are prepared to set in motion machinery which will achieve the IRA goal... a united Ireland. We now know that you have prepared Ulster Unionists for sacrifice on the altar of political expediency. They are to be the sacrificial lambs to appease the Dublin wolves". In his letter to FitzGerald, Paisley said: "You claim in your constitution jurisdiction over our territory, our homes, our persons and our families. You allow your territory to be used as a launching pad for murder gangs and as a sanctuary for them when they return soaked in our people's blood. You are a fellow traveller with the IRA and hope to ride on the back of their terrorism to your goal of a United Ireland. We reject your claims and will never submit to your authority. We will never bow to Dublin rule".
The moderator of the
Presbyterian Church of Ireland
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI; ga, Eaglais Phreispitéireach in Éirinn; Ulster-Scots: ''Prisbytairin Kirk in Airlann'') is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the Republic of Ireland, and the largest Protestant denomination in ...
, Robert Dickinson, wrote to Thatcher and said the Agreement was "the beginning of the process of edging Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom – sovereignty has been impinged". Thatcher's close friend and former Parliamentary Private Secretary
Ian Gow
Ian Reginald Edward Gow (; 11 February 1937 – 30 July 1990) was a British politician and solicitor. As a member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Eastbourne from 1974 until his assassination by the ...
resigned from his Treasury post in protest at the Agreement.
UUP politicians Christopher and
Michael McGimpsey
Michael McGimpsey (born 1 July 1948) is a former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast South from 1998 to 2016.
McGimpsey was born in Donaghadee, County Down and was educate ...
even brought a suit against the Irish government in the
High Court of Ireland
The High Court ( ga, An Ard-Chúirt) of Ireland is a court which deals at first instance with the most serious and important civil and criminal cases. When sitting as a criminal court it is called the Central Criminal Court and sits with judg ...
, arguing that the Agreement was invalid because it contradicted
Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland
Article 2 and Article 3 of the Constitution of Ireland ( ga, Bunreacht na hÉireann) were adopted with the Constitution of Ireland as a whole on 29 December 1937, but revised completely by means of the Nineteenth Amendment which became effectiv ...
. (This argument was unusual coming from a unionist because of the traditional unionist opposition to these two articles.) The case failed in the High Court, and again on appeal to the
Supreme Court.
Concerns of a
Rhodesia-style unilateral declaration of independence
A unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) is a formal process leading to the establishment of a new state by a subnational entity which declares itself independent and sovereign without a formal agreement with the state which it is secedin ...
(UDI) were raised repeatedly during several confidential Anglo-Irish meetings in 1986, according to Irish State papers declassified in 2016.
Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald believed that keeping the
Northern Ireland Assembly running ran the risk of it being used to declare Northern Ireland independent from Britain. Some senior Unionist politicians were sympathetic to the idea and had grown closer to loyalist paramilitaries, including DUP deputy leader
Peter Robinson and UUP
MP Harold McCusker
James Harold McCusker (7 February 1940 – 12 February 1990) was a Northern Ireland Ulster Unionist Party politician who served as the Deputy Leader of the UUP Assembly Group from 1982 to 1986.
Early life
The younger son of Jim and Lily McCu ...
.
Catholics feared they would targeted by a Protestant backlash to the Agreement.
Kenneth Bloomfield, then head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, warned that “unionists are now beginning to realise that the choice facing them is whether to preserve the union or preserve their ascendancy” and “people going for ascendancy may find themselves, logically, on the independence road — however untenable that may be economically and politically.”
In 1986 ''Irish Independent'' Northern Editor John Devine wrote that a younger, more hardline generation of DUP politicians including Peter Robinson, Jim Allister, and
Sammy Wilson would likely prefer an independent Northern Ireland to a situation where unionists were not in control or had to share power with nationalists. British civil service head Sir Robert Armstrong said that Unionist politicians had not considered the financial implications of an independent Northern Ireland, or how the move would be perceived internationally, especially in the context of the
European Economic Community (EEC).
The Orange Order in Scotland claimed that one thousand people left the Conservative Party in protest against the Agreement. In 1990 Thatcher said that "The Anglo-Irish Agreement had alienated some pro-Ulster supporters in crucial constituencies" in Scotland.
In August 1986 DUP Deputy Leader
Peter Robinson led a loyalist '
invasion
An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity aggressively enter territory (country subdivision), territory owned by another such entity, gen ...
' of the village of
Clontibret
Clontibret () is a village and parish in County Monaghan, Ireland. The village population in the 2016 census was 172. Clontibret is also a parish in both Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland traditions. The territory of the parish also includes ...
in the Republic of Ireland, near the border. The loyalists vandalised many buildings and beat up two police officers. Robinson was arrested, leading to rioting before and after his trial.
In November 1986 at an invitation-only ceremony at the
Ulster Hall
The Ulster Hall is a concert hall and grade A listed building in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Situated on Bedford Street in Belfast city centre, the hall hosts concerts, classical recitals, craft fairs and political party conferences.
History ...
the DUP launched
Ulster Resistance
Ulster Resistance (UR), or the Ulster Resistance Movement (URM), is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist Ulster loyalism#Paramilitary and vigilante groups, paramilitary movement established by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Irela ...
, a new paramilitary organisation intended to oppose the Anglo-Irish Agreement and fight Irish Republicanism.
["Inside the loyalist terror machine", ''Irish Independent'', 19 November 1986.] Ivan Foster
Ivan Foster (born 1943) is a retired senior minister in the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and a former Democratic Unionist Party politician. He was a lifelong friend and associate of the Democratic Unionist politician and Free Presbyterian C ...
claimed the group already had access to a significant arsenal of legally-owned firearms.
In 1987 Ulster Resistance collaborated with the
Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign ...
(UVF),
Red Hand Commando
The Red Hand Commando (RHC) is a small Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland that is closely linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Its aim was to combat Irish republicanism – particularly the Irish Republican Army (IR ...
(RHC) and the
Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of t ...
(UDA) to smuggle in a substantial quantity of arms including assault rifles and rocket launchers.
["DUP members knew of Ulster Resistance plans to get weapons", ''Sunday Tribune'', 30 April 1989.] The weapons jointly imported by Ulster Resistance and the two main Loyalist paramilitary organisations were linked to over 70 murders, including the
Greysteel massacre
The Greysteel massacreCrawford, Colin. ''Inside the UDA''. Pluto Press, 2003. p. 193 was a mass shooting that took place on the evening of 30 October 1993 in Greysteel, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Members of the Ulster Defence Associa ...
and the
Loughinisland massacre
The Loughinisland massacre O'Brien, Brendan. ''The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Féin''. Syracuse University Press, 1999. Page 314. took place on 18 June 1994 in the small village of Loughinisland, County Down, Northern Ireland. Members of the U ...
.
Thatcher was taken aback by the ferocity of the unionist response and in her memoirs she said their reaction was "worse than anyone had predicted to me". She furthermore claimed that the Agreement was in the tradition of British governments refraining "from security policies that might alienate the Irish Government and Irish nationalist opinion in Ulster, in the hope of winning their support against the IRA". However, Thatcher perceived the results of this to be disappointing because "our concessions alienated the Unionists without gaining the level of security co-operation we had a right to expect. In the light of this experience it is surely time to consider an alternative approach". In 1998 Thatcher said she regretted signing the Agreement and said of Enoch Powell's opposition to the Agreement: "I now believe that his assessment was right".
Prominent
Irish Labour Party
The Labour Party ( ga, Páirtí an Lucht Oibre, literally "Party of the Working People") is a centre-left and social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. Founded on 28 May 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, ...
member
Mary Robinson
Mary Therese Winifred Robinson ( ga, Máire Mhic Róibín; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who was the 7th president of Ireland, serving from December 1990 to September 1997, the first woman to hold this office. Prior to her electi ...
, who subsequently became
President of Ireland
The president of Ireland ( ga, Uachtarán na hÉireann) is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces.
The president holds office for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms.Constitu ...
, resigned from the Irish Labour Party because she believed that the Agreement "could not achieve its objective of securing peace and stability within Northern Ireland... because... it would be unacceptable to all sections of Unionist opinion".
Republican opposition
The agreement was rejected by
republicans because it confirmed Northern Ireland's status as a part of the UK. The
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...
(IRA) continued their
violent campaign and did not endorse the agreement. Sinn Féin's president,
Gerry Adams
Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. ...
, denounced the Agreement: "... the formal recognition of the partition of Ireland...
sa disaster for the nationalist cause...
tfar outweighs the powerless consultative role given to Dublin".
[Owen, p. 37.] On the other hand, the IRA and Sinn Féin said that the concessions made by Great Britain were the result of its armed campaign, from which the SDLP gained political credit. Brian Feeney of the SDLP has suggested the agreement hastened Sinn Féin's 1986 decision to abandon
abstentionism
Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in ...
from the Republic's
Oireachtas.
Speaking in the House of Commons
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
, MP for
Islington North
Islington North () is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1983 by Jeremy Corbyn. He served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition from 2015 to 2020. Cor ...
and later
Labour leader
The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again.
19th century
The origins of the ...
, spoke to oppose the treaty saying that it ran counter to the goal of a
United Ireland
United Ireland, also referred to as Irish reunification, is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically; the sovereign Republic of Ireland has jurisdiction over the maj ...
:
Does the hon. Gentleman accept that some of us oppose the agreement for reasons other than those that he has given? We believe that the agreement strengthens rather than weakens the border between the six and the 26 counties, and those of us who wish to see a United Ireland oppose the agreement for that reason.
He then went on to express concerns that the agreement threatened
Irish neutrality
Ireland has been neutral in international relations since the 1930s. The nature of Irish neutrality has varied over time, and has been contested since the 1970s. Historically, the state was a "non-belligerent" in the Second World War (see Irish ...
and risked forcing the Republic of Ireland to accept the British presence in Northern Ireland. The former cabinet minister
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...
and
Ken Livingstone, then leader of the
Greater London Council, also opposed the agreement because they believed Britain should withdraw from Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland by-elections
![Map of the 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Map_of_the_1986_Northern_Ireland_by-elections.svg)
The by-elections called after the Unionist MPs resigned did not quite offer the electorate a clear-cut choice on the agreement due to the reluctance of the other parties to contest them. No unionist candidate opposed another, whilst both the SDLP and
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...
only contested the four seats where at the previous election there had been a majority of votes cast for nationalist candidates. The SDLP rejected a Sinn Féin offer to form a nationalist electoral pact to oppose the unionist electoral pact.
In the process the SDLP gained the
Newry and Armagh Newry and Armagh can refer to:
* Newry and Armagh (Assembly constituency)
*Newry and Armagh (UK Parliament constituency)
Newry and Armagh is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Mickey Brady o ...
seat. The Alliance formally committed to fighting all the seats on a platform of support for the Agreement, but some local branches declined to select candidates. The
Workers' Party stood in a few seats. In four constituencies where no party would oppose the Unionist MP a man called
Wesley Robert Williamson Wesley may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Wesley (name), a given name and a surname
Places United States
* Wesley, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Wesley, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Wesley Township, Will County, Il ...
changed his name by
deed poll to "
Peter Barry" (the name of the Irish Foreign Minister) and stood on the label "For the Anglo-Irish Agreement" but did not campaign. Despite this he garnered nearly 7,000 votes and saved three deposits. The unionist parties between them garnered over 400,000 votes and over 71% of the total poll, but as no by-elections took place in the staunch nationalist seats of
West Belfast and
Foyle this latter figure is skewed.
Long-term effects
The Agreement failed to bring an immediate end to political violence in Northern Ireland; neither did it reconcile the two communities.
The devolved power-sharing government envisaged by the Agreement would not become a reality for many years, and then in quite a different form. However, it did improve co-operation between the British and Irish governments, which was key to the creation of the
Good Friday Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...
thirteen years later. As such, it can be seen as a major stepping-stone in the peace process, of which the inter-governmental component was crucial.
At a strategic level, the agreement demonstrated that the British government recognised as legitimate the wishes of the Republic to have an interest in the affairs of Northern Ireland. It also demonstrated to unionists that they could not politically veto British policy regarding Northern Ireland via their presence in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
.
Irish Republicans were left in the position of rejecting the only piece of constitutional progress (in the eyes of many nationalists and republicans) since the failure of the first attempt at powersharing via the
Sunningdale Agreement
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Sunningdale Park located in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unioni ...
a little over a decade earlier. As such, the agreement boosted the political approach advocated by the SDLP and contributed to republican recognition, made explicit in the 1998 agreement, of the
principle of consent
Principle of consent is a term used in the context of the Northern Ireland peace process and is one of the key points of the Good Friday Agreement. The principle asserts both the legitimacy of the aspiration to a United Ireland and the legitimac ...
as the basis of fundamental change of Northern Ireland's national status. Within ten years, however, the PIRA announced a (first) ceasefire, and both governments engaged in negotiation with the two sides to the Northern Ireland conflict, which led to the Good Friday Agreement.
The Anglo-Irish Agreement would also indirectly affect the outcome of the election of
Charles Haughey
Charles James Haughey (; 16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach on three occasions – 1979 to 1981, March to December 1982 and 1987 to 1992. He was also Minister for the Gaeltacht from ...
as
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the o ...
in the aftermath of the
1987 Irish General Election
The 1987 Irish general election was held on Tuesday, 17 February, four weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on 20 January. A continuing crisis over public finance had led to the collapse of Garret FitzGerald's coalition government and the d ...
. Independent TD
Tony Gregory
Tony Gregory (5 December 1947 – 2 January 2009) was an Irish independent politician, and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency from 1982 to 2009.
Early life
Gregory was born in Ballybough on Dublin's Northside, the secon ...
abstained in the vote for Haughey seeing Haughey as the "lesser of two evils" due to Gregory's opposition to the Agreement along with his personal dislike for FitzGerald. Haughey was elected Taoiseach on the casting vote of the
Ceann Comhairle.
[Stephen Kelly, "'The Totality of Relationships': The Haughey-Thatcher Relationship and the Anglo-Irish Summit Meeting, 8 December 1980." ''Eire-Ireland'' 51.3 (2016): 244-273.]
See also
*Other treaties involving Britain and Ireland:
**
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the ...
(1921)
**
Sunningdale Agreement
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Sunningdale Park located in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unioni ...
(1973)
**
Good Friday Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...
(1998)
**
St Andrews Agreement
The St Andrews Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Chill Rímhinn; Ulster Scots: ''St Andra's 'Greement'', ''St Andrew's Greeance'' or ''St Andrae's Greeance'') is an agreement between the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland's politica ...
(2006)
*
Ulster Says No
Ulster Says No was the name and slogan of a Unionism in Ireland, unionist Demonstration (people), mass protest campaign against the provisions of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement which gave the government of the Republic of Ireland an advisory role ...
– a protest campaign by unionists
*
Unionism in Ireland
Unionism is a political tradition on the island of Ireland that favours political union with Great Britain and professes loyalty to the British Crown and constitution. As the overwhelming sentiment of Ireland's Protestant minority, following ...
-- "Opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement"
References
Sources
*
* Text of the agreement:
*
Conflict Archive on the Internet
*
PeacemakerUnited Nations
*
Treaty Series 1985 No.2Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland
*
Treaty Series No.62 1985 Cmnd.9690Foreign Office, United Kingdom
Citations
Further reading
* Aughey, Arthur, and Cathy Gormley-Heenan. "The Anglo‐Irish Agreement: 25 Years On." ''Political Quarterly'' 82.3 (2011): 389-397.
* Aughey, Arthur, and Cathy Gormley-Heenan, eds. ''The Anglo-Irish Agreement: Rethinking Its Legacy'' (Manchester University Press, 2011).
* Cochrane, Feargal. ''Unionist politics and the politics of unionism since the Anglo-Irish agreement'' (Cork University Press, 1997).
* Coulter, Colin. "Peering in from the window ledge of the Union: the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the attempt to bring British Conservatism to Northern Ireland." ''Irish Studies Review'' 21.4 (2013): 406-42
online
* Cox, W. Harvey. "Public Opinion and the Anglo-Irish Agreement." ''Government and Opposition'' 22.3 (1987): 336-351.
* Kelly, Stephen. "‘The Anglo-Irish Agreement put us on side with the Americans’: Margaret Thatcher, Anglo-American relations and the path to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, 1979-1985." ''Contemporary British History'' (2020): 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/13619462.2020.1769607
Kelly, Stephen. Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland conflict, 1975-1990 (Bloomsbury, London,2021).
* McLoughlin, Peter John. "‘The First Major Step in the Peace Process’? Exploring the Impact of the Anglo-Irish Agreement on Irish Republican Thinking." ''Irish Political Studies'' 29.1 (2014): 116-133.
* O'Kane, Eamon. "Re-Evaluating the Anglo-Irish Agreement: Central or Incidental to the Northern Ireland Peace Process?." ''International Politics'' 44.6 (2007): 711-73
online
* O’Leary, Brendan. "Northern Ireland and the Anglo-Irish Agreement." in ''Developments in British Politics'' (Palgrave, London, 1990) pp. 3:269-290.
* Owen, Arwel Ellis. ''The Anglo-Irish agreement: The first three years'' (Univ of Wales Press, 1994).
* Shannon, William V. "The Anglo-Irish Agreement." ''Foreign Affairs'' 64.4 (1986): 849-870. regarding 1985 agreement
online* Todd, Jennifer. "Institutional change and conflict regulation: the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985) and the mechanisms of change in Northern Ireland." ''West European Politics'' 34.4 (2011): 838-858
online* Trumbore, Peter F. "Public opinion as a domestic constraint in international negotiations: Two-level games in the Anglo-Irish peace process." ''International Studies Quarterly'' 42.3 (1998): 545-56
online
External links
Conflict Archive on the Internet
CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet) is a database containing information about Conflict and Politics in Northern Ireland from 1968 to the present. The project began in 1996, with the website launching in 1997. The project is based within Ul ...
(CAIN), Queen's University Belfast
{{Authority control
1985 in Ireland
1985 in Northern Ireland
1985 in the United Kingdom
1980s in Irish politics
Constitutional laws of the United Kingdom
History of Northern Ireland
Ireland–United Kingdom relations
Northern Ireland peace process
Peace treaties of Ireland
Peace treaties of the United Kingdom
Treaties concluded in 1985
Bilateral treaties of Ireland
Bilateral treaties of the United Kingdom