Anglo-Irish Agreement
Signed | 15 November 1985 |
---|---|
Location | Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland |
Original signatories | |
Parties | |
Language | English |
The Anglo-Irish Agreement was a 1985 treaty between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland which aimed to help bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.[1] The treaty gave the Irish government 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 consensus government in the region.
The Agreement was signed on 15 November 1985, at Hillsborough Castle, by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Garret FitzGerald.[1]
Background
During her first term as prime minister, Thatcher had unsuccessful talks with both Jack Lynch and Charles Haughey 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.[2] 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.[3] 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.[3] However, the British Northern Irish Secretary, Jim Prior, 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.[4]
The
The New Ireland Forum had been founded (with the backing of then-Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald) in May 1983 by John Hume 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.[7] 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".[8] Thatcher's intransigence persuaded the American President, Ronald Reagan, to intervene.[9]
The most powerful pressure for the Agreement came from the
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".[14] Michael Lillis, the Deputy Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs from 1983 to 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".[15]
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.[16] 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.[17]
Provisions
Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference
The agreement established the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, made up of officials from the
Communiqué
In the communiqué accompanying the agreement, the UK agreed that all British Army patrols in Northern Ireland would have a civilian Royal Ulster Constabulary escort, save in the most exceptional circumstances.[20] The Irish government made thousands of protests at violations of this undertaking by 1997.[21]
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 well as some members of the Labour Party and the Liberal-SDP Alliance. Of the main parties in Northern Ireland, only the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the cross community Alliance Party supported the agreement, although the Alliance Party did not have any seats at Westminster.[citation needed]
The Agreement was approved by
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.[24] FitzGerald's government's approval ratings went up 10% to 34%; 32% approved of Haughey's opposition to the Agreement, with 56% opposed.[24]
Unionist and Loyalist opposition
The Agreement was widely rejected by
There was also a mass rally outside
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
Following the resignation of the unionist members of parliament, who represented 15 of the 17 Westminster seats in the province, the 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections were held on 23 January 1986, and all the resigning members except one were re-elected, standing on an anti-Agreement platform. The exception was Newry and Armagh, which in a close contest was gained by the pro-Agreement SDLP.[31]
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.[32] Vandalism and clashes with police broke out following a Unionist rally held at Belfast City Hall.[32] 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.[33] Alliance Party politician Seamus Close, whose family had been a victim of intimidation, criticised UUP leader Jim Molyneaux for downplaying reports of intimidation. DUP Chief Whip Jim Allister denied roadside pickets which surrounded motorists amounted to intimidation.[32]
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".
The UUP MP
The moderator of the
UUP politicians Christopher and
Concerns of a Rhodesia-style unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) were raised repeatedly during several confidential Anglo-Irish meetings in 1986, according to Irish State papers declassified in 2016.[43] 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.[43] Catholics feared they would be targeted by a Protestant backlash to the Agreement.[43] 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."[43] 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.[44] 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).[43]
The Orange Order in Scotland claimed that one thousand people left the Conservative Party in protest against the Agreement.[45] In 1990 Thatcher said that "The Anglo-Irish Agreement had alienated some pro-Ulster supporters in crucial constituencies" in Scotland.[46]
In August 1986 DUP Deputy Leader Peter Robinson led a loyalist 'invasion' of the village of Clontibret 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 DUP launched Ulster Resistance, a new paramilitary organisation intended to oppose the Anglo-Irish Agreement and fight Irish Republicanism.[47] Ivan Foster claimed the group already had access to a significant arsenal of legally-owned firearms.[47] In 1987 Ulster Resistance collaborated with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), Red Hand Commando (RHC) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) to smuggle in a substantial quantity of arms including assault rifles and rocket launchers.[48] The weapons jointly imported by Ulster Resistance and the two main Loyalist paramilitary organisations were linked to over 70 murders, including the Greysteel massacre and the Loughinisland massacre.[49]
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".[50] 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".[51] 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".[52]
Prominent Irish Labour Party member Mary Robinson, who subsequently became President of Ireland, 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".[53]
Republican opposition
The agreement was rejected by
Speaking in the House of Commons Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North and later Labour leader, spoke to oppose the treaty saying that it ran counter to the goal of a United Ireland:
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.[56]
He then went on to express concerns that the agreement threatened Irish neutrality and risked forcing the Republic of Ireland to accept the British presence in Northern Ireland. The former cabinet minister Tony Benn 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
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
Long-term effects
The Agreement failed to bring an immediate end to political violence in Northern Ireland; neither did it reconcile the two communities.[1] 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 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.[57]
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.
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 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 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.[58]
The Anglo-Irish Agreement would also indirectly affect the outcome of the election of Charles Haughey as Taoiseach in the aftermath of the 1987 Irish General Election. Independent TD Tony Gregory 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.[59]
See also
- Other treaties involving Britain and Ireland:
- Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921)
- Sunningdale Agreement (1973)
- Good Friday Agreement (1998)
- St Andrews Agreement (2006)
- Ulster Says No – a protest campaign by unionists
- Unionism in Ireland -- "Opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement"
References
Sources
- Feeney, Brian (2002). Sinn Féin: A Hundred Turbulent Years. O'Brien Press. ISBN 9780862787707.
- Text of the agreement:
- Conflict Archive on the Internet
- Peacemaker United Nations
- Treaty Series 1985 No.2 Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland
- Treaty Series No.62 1985 Cmnd.9690 Foreign Office, United Kingdom
Citations
- ^ a b c d e Editorial (20 May 2011). "In praise of... the Anglo-Irish agreement". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
- ^ John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, Volume Two: The Iron Lady (London: Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 422.
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 426.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 426-427.
- ^ Campbell, p. 427.
- ^ a b c Campbell, p. 429.
- ^ Campbell, p. 430.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 433-435.
- ^ Campbell, p. 434.
- ^ Campbell, p. 429, p. 435.
- ^ a b Campbell, p. 435.
- ^ John A. Farrell, Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century (Back Bay, 2002), pp. 623-624.
- ^ Chris Matthews, Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013), p. 334.
- ^ Farrell, p. 624.
- ^ Farrell, p. 623.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 435-436.
- ^ Campbell, p. 436.
- ^ Belfast Unionists Protest 1st British-Irish Meeting, The Washington Post, 12 December 1985
- ^ "Written Answers: Anglo-Irish Secretariat, Maryfield". Lords Hansard. parliament.uk. 6 November 2000. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ "Anglo-Irish Relations: Motion (Resumed.)". Dáil Éireann debates. Oireachtas. 17 February 1988. cc.186–7. Archived from the original on 16 June 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ Feeney 2002, pp.329–30
- ^ Arwel Ellis Owen, The Anglo-Irish Agreement A Broadcaster's Experience, p. 43.
- ^ a b Anglo-Irish Agreement 1985: Motion (Resumed) Archived 5 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine Parliamentary Debates, Dáil Éireann - Volume 361 - 21 November 1985
- ^ a b Owen, p. 40.
- ^ Ulster Protestants enraged by a 5-day-old Anglo-Irish agreement attacked... Archived 25 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine. upi.com Archives 20 Nov. 1985. Retrieved 25 Dec. 2016
- ^ Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster (Belfast: Blackstaff, 2005), p. 758.
- ^ Arwel Ellis Owen, The Anglo-Irish Agreement. The First Three Years (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1994), p. 41.
- ^ a b Owen, p. 41.
- ^ Arthur Aughey, Under Siege. Ulster Unionism and the Anglo-Irish Agreement (Belfast: Blackstaff, 1989), p. 86.
- ^ Owen, p. 42.
- ^ Fionnuala McKenna, Westminster By-Elections (NI) Thursday 23 January 1986, cain.ulster.ac.uk, accessed 6 October 2022
- ^ a b c "Violence Unionist Strike". RTÉ Archives.
- ^ "Anglo-Irish Agreement - Chronology of Events". Retrieved 30 May 2022.
- ^ Aogan Mulcahy, Policing Northern Ireland (Routledge, 2006), p. 36.
- ^ a b c Stacey K. McGoldrick, Andrea McArdle, Uniform Behavior: Police Localism and National Politics (Springer, 2006), p. 110.
- ^ "House of Commons PQs". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. 14 November 1985. Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- ^ Owen, p. 37, p. 43.
- ^ a b Owen, p. 38.
- ^ Owen, p. 33.
- ^ Owen, pp. 32–3.
- ^ Owen, pp. 38–9.
- BAILII. 1 March 1990. Archivedfrom the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ a b c d e "State papers 1986: Peter Robinson plotted an independent state". irishtimes.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
- ^ "The Paisley heirs apparent", Irish Independent, 10 June 1986.
- ^ Joseph M. Bradley, Orangeism in Scotland: Unionism, Politics, Identity, and Football, Éire-Ireland – Volume 39:1&2, Earrach/Samhradh / Spring/Summer 2004, p. 245
- ^ The Scottish Daily Express, 25 April 1990, quoted in Bradley, p. 246.
- ^ a b "Inside the loyalist terror machine", Irish Independent, 19 November 1986.
- ^ "DUP members knew of Ulster Resistance plans to get weapons", Sunday Tribune, 30 April 1989.
- ^ Cobain, Ian (27 June 2017). "Troubled past: the paramilitary connection that still haunts the DUP". Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
- ^ Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (London: HarperCollins, 1993), p. 403.
- ^ Thatcher, p. 415.
- ^ "Enoch was right on Ireland, says Thatcher". BBC News. 23 November 1998. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- ^ a b Owen, p. 37.
- ISBN 0-7456-3140-1
- ^ Feeney 2002, p.329
- ^ "Anglo-Irish Agreement HC Deb 27 November 1985 vol 87 cc884-973". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 27 November 1985. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ^ Arthur Aughey, and Cathy Gormley-Heenan. "The Anglo‐Irish Agreement: 25 Years On." Political Quarterly 82.3 (2011): 389-397.
- ^ Peter John McLoughlin, "‘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.
- ^ 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.
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): 406-424 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): 711-731 online[dead link].
- 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): 545-565 online[dead link].
External links
- Anglo-Irish Agreement Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), Queen's University Belfast