Anglo-Irish Agreement

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The Anglo-Irish Agreement ( English Anglo-Irish Agreement , Irish an Comhaontú Angla-Éireannach ) is an agreement signed on November 15, 1985 , which granted the Irish government an advisory role in the Northern Ireland conflict for the first time and at the same time confirmed that Northern Ireland's constitutional status was not would be changed without the will of the Northern Irish majority population. The agreement was signed by the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald in Hillsborough Castle and was intended to politically pacify the Northern Ireland conflict.

prehistory

From the early 1980s onwards, the Irish and British governments worked together more intensively to achieve a political settlement in the Northern Ireland conflict that was acceptable to all sides.

Provisions

Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference

The Anglo-Irish Agreement of November 15, 1985 established the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, composed of representatives from the British and Irish Governments. This body dealt with political, legal and security issues in Northern Ireland as well as with the "promotion of cross-border cooperation". However, the Intergovernmental Conference only had an advisory role. She has not been granted any decision-making powers or changes to the law. The conference was, however, empowered to make proposals "provided these matters do not fall within the competence of a decentralized administration in Northern Ireland". This provision was intended to encourage the Northern Irish Unionists (who, contrary to the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, opposed the participation of the Irish government in Northern Ireland) to operate a decentralized government of power distribution. The so-called Maryfield Secretariat was the permanent secretariat of the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference , which also included officials from the Irish Foreign Office . The presence of the Irish officials, in turn, particularly outraged the Unionists. The offices of the Maryfield Secretariat closed in December 1998 after the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference replaced the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference .

Communiqué

In a communiqué annexed to the Anglo-Irish Agreement , the United Kingdom agreed that all British Army patrols in Northern Ireland should be accompanied by a civilian escort from the Royal Ulster Constabulary . An exception could only be made in exceptional circumstances. By 1997, the Irish government raised thousands of protests over breaches of this commitment. It was not until the Good Friday Agreement of April 10, 1998 that the violent phase of the Northern Ireland conflict was ended and turned into a search for political consensus.

Effects

The 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement initially failed to end political violence in Northern Ireland immediately, nor did it reconcile the two opposing parties. With the agreement, the two governments did not succeed in creating stability for the time being. Nevertheless, the armistice unilaterally declared by the IRA on August 31, 1994 is considered a late consequence of the 1985 agreement.

The power-sharing with a decentralized government formation provided for in the agreement was not implemented in the following years and later in a completely different form. However, cooperation between the British and Irish governments improved, which thirteen years later was an important building block in the formation of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. In this respect, the Anglo-Irish Agreement can be viewed from an intergovernmental perspective as an important step in the peace process, since from now on the Irish government was also able to contribute its opinion and suggestions to the discourse on Northern Ireland.

reception

To this day, many Northern Irish - mainly Protestant - see this step as Thatcher's betrayal of the British province.

The Guardian commented on the agreement in 2011 as follows: "After centuries of oppression and two decades in the modern unrest, the agreement changed everything and nothing."

Shortly before an EU summit on Brexit in October 2018 , the head of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Arlene Foster , warned British Prime Minister Theresa May of mistakes in the negotiations on the Irish question and spoke with a view to British history of a Thatcher déjà vu. Referring to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Foster said: “She should learn from her predecessor Margaret Thatcher” and continued “Despite their unionist beliefs, other Thatchers were persuaded to sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement.” According to Foster, Thatcher later “deeply regretted this decision ". Not so her co-signer, Ireland's Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald, for whom the Anglo-Irish Agreement was a high point of his career.

See also

The UK and Ireland have been involved in the following other treaties:

literature

  • Brian Feeney: Sinn Féin: A Hundred Turbulent Years . O'Brien Press, 2002, ISBN 9780862787707 . (English)

Web links

Commons : Anglo-Irish Agreement  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ CAIN: CAIN Web Service, Key Events: Anglo-Irish Agreement, November 15, 1985 . Online at cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  2. ↑ NORTHERN IRELAND. Hostile state. DER SPIEGEL 50/1985, accessed on October 13, 2018 .
  3. ↑ John Campbell: Margaret Thatcher. Volume Two: The Iron Lady . Vintage Books, London 2008, p. 436.
  4. ↑ a b Irish EU Council Presidency 2013 : Ireland & The Presidency. About Ireland. Irish politics and the government. Northern Ireland . Online at www.eu2013.ie. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b c d In praise of ... the Anglo-Irish agreement. The Guardian, accessed October 13, 2018 . (English)
  6. ^ Written Answers: Anglo-Irish Secretariat, Maryfield . In: Lords Hansard . parliament.uk. November 6, 2000. Accessed November 13, 2018. (English)
  7. ^ Anglo-Irish Relations: Motion (Resumed.) . In: Dáil Éireann debates . Oireachtas. Pp. Cc.186-7. February 17, 1988. Retrieved November 13, 2018. (English)
  8. ↑ Feeney 2002, p. 329 f.
  9. ↑ Ulster Protestants enraged by a 5-day-old Anglo-Irish agreement attacked ... (English). Archive article dated November 20, 1985. Online at www.upi.com. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  10. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education : "End of History" in Northern Ireland? . November 14, 2005. Online at www.bpb.de. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  11. ↑ a b n-tv : Northern Ireland's role in BrexitDUP boss May warns of Thatcher déjà vu . October 13, 2018. Online at www.n-tv.de. Retrieved October 14, 2018.