Previous attempts to bring peace to Northern Ireland have failed. What problems will need to be overcome if the current peace talks are to succeed?
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 supporting this agreement. The Unionists leaders, had lost their support from the Unionists, and they resigned the Power-sharing Assembly, which made the peace negotiations collapse.
