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The Sunningdale Agreement (Agreeing to Power Sharing (All of this chaos…
The Sunningdale Agreement
Introduction
The Sunningdale Agreement was a case of desperate times calling for desperate measures.
The fact that Britain would consider the admittedly undemocratic idea of power sharing government shows that conditions in Northern Ireland were truly terrible at the time.
Tensions between Catholics and Protestants had reached fever pitch and the country was in chaos.
While this led to the birth of the agreement it also eventually led to its demise.
The sheer opposition of the unionist population along with the ill-considered actions of both Irish and British governments to lead to the end of the agreement before it could even begin.
Chaos in NI
Northern Ireland at the time was a violent and extremely dangerous place rife with sectarian conflict.
The Provisional IRAs bombing campaign was largely to blame for a death toll of 467.
British had brought in in an attempt to restore order which only further worsened the situation as it led to frustrated soldier taking their anger out on citizens, in events such as Bloody Sunday, January 30th 1972.
On this day soldiers of the British Parachute Regiment and other army units fired into a crowd of anti-internment demonstrators, killing 14.
Internment had been brought it back in, aimed to imprison IRA leaders.
However, those who were imprisoned were mainly the official IRA not the provisional IRA which was active.
In 1971 alone 184 people died due to battles between the British troops and both IRAs.
Agreeing to Power Sharing
All of this chaos eventually led to the end of Stormont and the introduction of Direct Rule on March 23rd, 1972.
The British Prime Minister Edward Heath and the NI Prime Minister Brian Faulkner realised that something had to be done.
They explored a number of options but eventually realised that the SDLP’s concept of power sharing was the only realistic option.
Violence continued as nationalist and unionist parties were unwilling to sit down and talk.
Whitelaw was brought in as secretary of state to oversee the procedure.
Eventually the atrocities of 1972 forced the parties to explore power sharing and so the Sunningdale Agreement began.
The Sunningdale Agreement would establish a NI Assembly, elected by PR.
The Assembly would comprise of the largest unionist party and the largest nationalist party.
As well as this it would establish a Council of Ireland.