Bringing Peace to Northern Ireland

Bringing Peace to Northern Ireland

The Sunningdale Agreement

In Ireland there are two sides, the Nationalists and the Unionists.

These two sides have shown hatred towards one another, since the 17th

century. The Unionists believe that they should still have close links

with Britain and the Nationalists believe that Ireland should be a

Republic. Lots of government officials have attended peace talks to

make a compromise, which both Nationalists and Unionist will agree on.

I will be explaining to peace agreements and how both sides felt about

them.

The first negotiations for a peace settlement were made in 1973, which

was called the Sunningdale Agreement. The IRA was not allowed in these

talks as they refused to give up their weapons, as the talks were held

to stop the violence and hatred in Ireland. This was to end the

“Direct Rule” which was at existence and a new government would be set

up. But this government would still be part of the United Kingdom,

Britain would only accept if the parties from both communities took

part in these peace talks. This was a breakthrough because both sides

had agreed to sit down and discuss the matter. Three parties, the UUP,

SDLP and Alliance Party, settled for a power-sharing executive to

control Northern Ireland. There would be a council of Ireland, which

would be made up of council ministers which both Irish governments

would represent equally. This was a breakthrough because this was the

first meeting since 1925, which the governments of Britain, Southern

Ireland and Northern Ireland attended. The Council of Ireland made may

more problems on the subject of power-sharing. The unionist leader

lost the support of his party, the Ulster Unionist Council vote 427

votes to 374, a lot of Unionists were against the agreement and three

main parties formed a United Ulster unionist council (UUUC). The

unionists believed if they took part in these talks, there would be a

possibility the Northern part of Ireland would be again part of

Ireland as a whole. This was a reason why the Nationalists were