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 on 9 December 1973 at Sunningdale Park in Sunningdale, Berkshire. [1] Unionist opposition, violence and a loyalist general strike caused the collapse of the agreement in May 1974. Provisions for a Council of Ireland existed in the Government of Ireland Act 1920, but they had never been enacted. Unionists did not like the idea of the Republic of Ireland “interfering” in its newly formed region. In 1973, after an agreement was reached on the formation of an executive, agreement was sought on the re-establishment of a Council of Ireland to promote cooperation with the Republic of Ireland. Zwischen dem 6. und 9. In December, talks were held in the Berkshire city of Sunningdale between British Prime Minister Edward Heath, Irish Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and the three pro-deal parties. 8 Reactions and failures of the agreement10. December 1973: Creation of the Ulster Army Council, they fear the influences of Republican Ireland January 1974: A majority of the UUP wants to resign from the Northern Ireland Assembly. Faulkner abdicated, Harry West replaced him in Parliament in February: the UUUC (United Ulster Unionist Council) won 11 of the 12 constituencies. May 15: Two-week general strike, organized by the UWC (Ulster Workers Council) May 28: Faulkner was fired, thus failing the Sunningdale agreement.
It was eventually agreed that the Council`s executive functions would be limited to “aspects related to tourism, nature conservation and animal health”, but this did not reassure unionists, who saw any influence of the Republic on northern affairs as another step towards a united Ireland. They saw their fears confirmed when SDLP adviser Hugh Logue, in a speech at Trinity College Dublin, publicly described the Council of Ireland as “the vehicle that would plunge unionists into a united Ireland”. [4] On December 10, the day after the agreement was announced, loyalist paramilitaries formed the Ulster Army Council – a coalition of loyalist paramilitary groups, including the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, that would oppose the agreement. In January 1974, the Ulster Unionist Party narrowly voted against a new participation in the assembly and Faulkner resigned as president to be replaced by the anti-Sunningdale Harry West. Parliamentary elections were held the following month. The Ulster Unionists formed the United Ulster Unionist Council (UUUC) as a coalition of anti-agreement trade unionists with the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party to field a single anti-Sunningdale candidate in each constituency. The pro-Sunningdale parties, the SDLP, the Alliance, the Northern Ireland Labour Party and the pro-Assembly Unionists, made up of Faulkner`s supporters, were divided and put forward candidates against each other. By the time the results were announced, the UUUC had won eleven of the twelve constituencies, some of which had been won by split votes. Only West Belfast has fired a pro-Sunningdale MP (Gerry Fitt).
The UUUC said this constituted a democratic rejection of the Sunningdale Assembly and Executive and sought to bring it down by all means. On December 9, a statement was issued announcing the agreement, which later became known as the Sunningdale Agreement. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA), on which Northern Ireland`s current system of decentralisation is based, is very similar to the Sunningdale Agreement. [5] Irish politician Séamus Mallon, who participated in the negotiations, described the deal as a “Sunningdale for slow learners.” This claim has been criticized by political scientists such as Richard Wilford and Stefan Wolff. The first said that “he.. significant differences between them [Sunningdale and Belfast], both in terms of the content and circumstances of their negotiation, implementation and implementation`. [6] On the 21st. In November, an agreement was reached on a voluntary coalition of pro-agreement parties (contrary to the provisions of the Belfast Agreement, which establishes the d`Hondt method for the election of ministers, proportional to the main parties in the assembly). Prominent members of the executive were former Unionist Prime Minister Brian Faulkner as director general, SDLP leader Gerry Fitt as deputy director general, future Nobel laureate and SDLP leader John Hume as Secretary of Commerce and Alliance Party leader Oliver Napier as minister of law and head of the Office of Law Reform. The other members of the executive were unionist Basil McIvor as Minister of Education, Unionist Herbert Kirk as Minister of Finance, Austin Currie, member of the SDLP as Minister of Housing, Unionist Leslie Morrell as Minister of Agriculture, Paddy Devlin, member of the SDLP, as Minister of Health and Social Services, trade unionist Roy Bradford as Environment Minister and Unionist John Baxter as Information Minister. [3] This new executive, composed of the above-mentioned members, took office and held its very first meeting on January 1, 1974. [3] The UUP was deeply divided: its Standing Committee voted by a majority of 132 votes to 105 to participate in the executive.
In March 1974, pro-agreement trade unionists withdrew their support for the agreement and called on the Republic of Ireland to first delete Articles 2 and 3 of its Constitution (these articles would not be revised until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement). The Northern Ireland Assembly Bill resulting from the White Paper entered into force on 3 May 1973 and elections for the new Assembly were held on 28 June. .