Sunningdale Agreement
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Signed | 9 December 1973 |
---|---|
Location | Sunningdale, Berkshire |
Original signatories | |
Parties | |
Language | English |
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing
Northern Ireland Assembly
On 20 March 1973, the British government published a white paper which proposed a 78-member Northern Ireland Assembly, to be elected by proportional representation. The British government would retain control over law, order and finance, while a Council of Ireland composed of members of the executive of the Republic of Ireland, Dáil Éireann, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly would act in a consultative role.[2] The assembly was to replace the suspended Stormont Parliament, but it was hoped that it would not be dominated by the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in the same way, and would thus be acceptable to Nationalists.
The Northern Ireland Assembly Bill resulting from the white paper became law on 3 May 1973, and elections for the new assembly were held on 28 June. The agreement was supported by the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the unionist UUP and the cross-community Alliance Party. The pro-agreement parties won a clear majority of seats (52 to 26), but a substantial minority inside the Ulster Unionist Party opposed the agreement.
Power-sharing executive
After the assembly elections, negotiations between the pro-white paper parties on the formation of a "power-sharing executive" began. The main concerns were internment, policing and the question of a Council of Ireland.
On 21 November agreement was reached on a voluntary coalition of pro-agreement parties (unlike the provisions of the
Portfolio | Minister | Party | Constitutional Position | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chief Executive | Brian Faulkner | UUP | Unionist | |
Deputy Chief Executive | Gerry Fitt | SDLP | Nationalist | |
Minister of Agriculture | Leslie Morrell | UUP | Unionist | |
Minister of Commerce | John Hume | SDLP | Nationalist | |
Minister of Education | Basil McIvor | UUP | Unionist | |
Minister of the Environment | Roy Bradford | UUP | Unionist | |
Minister of Finance | Herbert Kirk | UUP | Unionist | |
Minister of Health and Social Services | Paddy Devlin | SDLP | Nationalist | |
Minister of Housing, Local Government and Planning | Austin Currie | SDLP | Nationalist | |
Minister of Information | John Baxter | UUP | Unionist | |
Legal Minister and Head of the Office of Law Reform | Oliver Napier | Alliance | Non-sectarian |
Council of Ireland
Provisions for a Council of Ireland existed in the
and the three pro-agreement parties.The talks agreed on a two-part Council of Ireland:
- The Council of Ministers was to be composed of seven members from the power-sharing executive, and seven members from the Irish Government. It was to have "executive and harmonising functions and a consultative role".
- The Consultative Assembly was to be made up of 30 members from Dáil Éireann and 30 members from the Northern Ireland Assembly. It was to have "advisory and review functions" only.
On 9 December, a
Reaction to the agreement
It was eventually agreed that the executive functions of the Council would be limited to "tourism, conservation, and aspects of animal health", but this did not reassure the unionists, who saw any influence by the Republic over Northern affairs as a step closer to a
In January 1974, the Ulster Unionist Party narrowly voted against continued participation in the assembly and Faulkner resigned as leader, to be succeeded by the anti-Sunningdale
In March 1974, pro-agreement unionists withdrew their support for the agreement, calling for the Republic of Ireland to remove the Articles 2 and 3 of its constitution first (these articles would not be revised until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998).
Collapse of the agreement
Following the defeat of a motion condemning power-sharing in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Ulster Workers' Council, a loyalist organisation, called a general strike for 15 May. After two weeks of barricades, shortages, rioting and intimidation, Brian Faulkner resigned as chief executive and the Sunningdale Agreement collapsed on 28 May 1974.
The strike succeeded because the British government was reluctant to use force to stop the disruption of essential services, the only significant part of the protest.[5]
The most crippling aspect of the strike was its effect on electricity supply – the
In later strikes the security forces were prepared to use force immediately, and so intimidatory barricades – essential to the success of the UWC strike – were suppressed from the outset.[6]
Legacy
The 1998
See also
- Unionism in Ireland (Sunningdale Agreement and the Ulster Workers' Strike)
- Anglo-Irish Agreement
- Downing Street Declaration
- Good Friday Agreement
References
- ^ "1973: Sunningdale Agreement signed". BBC News. 9 December 1973. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
- ^ The Sunningdale Agreement Archived 14 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine — full text of the agreement, from the CAIN project's website
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84741-186-0.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link - ^ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1974". Archived from the original on 30 December 2010. Retrieved 12 July 2006.
- ISBN 1856351149.
- ^ Ó Broin 1995, p. 176
- ISBN 978-1846310652. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
- ^ New Labour in Power, David Coates, Peter Augustine Lawler, Peter Lawler, Manchester University Press, 2000, page 96
- ^ Wilford, Rick (2001).Context and Content: Sunningdale and Belfast Compared Archived 9 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Oxford University Press, p.1
- ^ Hearty, Kevin (2017), Critical Engagement: Irish Republicanism, Memory Politics and Policing, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 113
External links
- The Sunningdale Agreement on the UK Parliament website
- The Sunningdale Agreement — full text of the agreement, from the CAIN project's website
- The Sunningdale Agreement — Chronology of Main Events — from the same site
- Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals — text of the British government white paper which led to the agreement
- Ulster Workers' Council Strike — events and background to the UWC general strike, from the CAIN project
- Sunningdale: An Agreement Too Soon?[1]